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ARTISTIC JAPAN
Illustrations and Essays,
COLLECTED BY
S. BING.
VOLUME II
SAMPSON
LONDON :
LOW, MARSTON, SEARLE & RIVINGTON,
LIMITED,
J^t. Qunëtan’ë ?Öouöc,
FETTER LANE, FLEET STREET, E.C.
1889.
The
W
'll try of Art,
1, a. a.
LONDON :
PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED,
STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS.
• I^L
0 \
THE GETTY CENTER
1 I nr? a r?v
ARTISTIC JAPAN:
A Monthly Illustrated Journal
OF
ARTS AND INDUSTRIES
COMPILED BY
S. BING
WITH THE ASSISTANCE OF
Mr. WM. ANDERSON, MM. PH. BURTY, VICTOR CHAMPIER, TH. DURET, L. FALIZE,
Mr. ERNEST HART, MM. EDMOND DE GONCOURT, LOUIS GONSE, EUGÈNE
GUILLAUME, T. HAYASHI, PAUL MANTZ, Professor ROBERTS-AUSTEN,
Mr. C. H. READ, MM. ROGER MARX, ANTONIN PROUST,
ARY RENAN, Mr. STUART SAMUELS, M. EDM. TAIGNY,
ETC., ETC.
The English Edition is under the Editorship of
MR. MARCUS B. HUISH
LONDON :
SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON, SEARLE & RI VINGT ON,
LIMITED ,
â>t. Sunätan’ä ??ouâf,
FETTER LANE, FLEET STREET, E.C.
Contents of Number 7.
ENGRAVING IN JAPAN, by M. Théodore Duret .... 73
DESCRIPTION OF PLATES . 80
SEPARATE PLATES.
Il II.
Ladies Boating. By Kiyonaga.
HF.
Three Bronze Vases. Date, eighteenth century.
AJA.
Sparrows on a Branch of Bamboo.
By Nosan.
HB.
Scene of Indoor Life, By Moronobu.
DI.
Industrial Design.
IC.
Mandarin Ducks. By Hokusai.
EA.
Decorative Design. Bamboos.
IE.
On the Banks of the Sumida-gawa.
By Hokusai.
HH.
Industrial Design. Trunks of Trees.
AJB.
Piece of Silk with Pattern of Peacocks, Seventeenth century,
Cover.
Flower-seller. By Kiyonaga.
ARTISTIC JAPAN.
design on to wood or copper ; and the printer, who produces from the wood
or metal the finished print. In Europe the de-
signer and the engraver are generally artists, and
the printer is a workman who takes from a
machine any number of uniform proofs. In Japan
the printer, equally with the designer and en-
graver, is an artist, working with an artist’s taste
and fancy. Having only the most simple means
and materials, and no machine, he knows no
repetition or stiffness, but in the choice and
mixing of the colours on the plate he makes
endless variations, and so avoids all monotony or
uniformity.
In the selection of Japanese engravings,
taking those where the three artists - — de-
signer, engraver, and printer — have put their
very best work, one finds many specimens
perfect in their way, and which are practically
unsurpassable. In engraving, the Japanese
have always held to certain methods, which
give to their productions a certain special
originality of their own ; they have confined
themselves to the use of wood on which to
engrave designs, which have been drawn
ö O 7
by the artists themselves by means of the
brush.
When a European writes he employs a pen, and occasionally he may
use one for drawing ; but more often he uses a
pencil ; but when he paints, he invariably
takes a brush. In Japan and China it is not at
all the same ; there, when one writes, draws, or
paints, the implement is the same — the brush,
held in the hand, raised up over the paper.
The result of the constant use of the same instru-
ment is great dexterity in the handling of it ; and as
the strokes of a brush filled with ink or colour make
lines and strokes that one cannot alter, certainty of
74
ARTISTIC JAPAN.
touch and boldness of hand are the essential points
that every artist has been obliged
to seek after and obtain.
The paper on which the de-
sign has been traced having been
glued to the wood on which it is
to be cut, the engraver sets to
work to reproduce in the wood all
the suppleness and fulness which
the design on the paper had re-
ceived from the use of the brush as an implement.
Japanese engravers have arrived at such clever- m« on a Balcony, by Kunisad«.
ness in this respect that even an experienced eye can hardly detect designs
direct from the brush. When one adds that Japanese engravings are as
a rule taken on the very finest paper, and that in the first state they are
of great rarity, one can understand that they combine all the necessary
conditions to charm the eye of an artist, and to excite the covetousness of
collectors.
The art of engraving on wood came to Japan from China. As a means
of illustrating books it is comparatively modern ; the Isé monogatari of 1604
is the first remarkable specimen of it. It is an illustrated romance. The
engravings in it are in an archaic and rather clumsy style, but already show
in conception and execution the characteristics of the art as it is in its
present development.
During the seventeenth century books with engravings were rare,
until the time of Ishigawa Moronobu, who flourished from 1680 to about
1700. Moronobu has treated very nearly all the styles to which the art
at that time could be applied; he illustrated romances — “ meishos ” — or
descriptions of countries, a series of books with plates, some of types of the
75
ARTISTIC JAPAN.
By Issai.
Japanese people, others of beasts and plants, very
realistically given or employed as decorative mo-
tives. His style, although archaic, is full of force
and movement. It is, as it were, the entrance to the
study of engraving in Japan.
The impulse given by Moronobu was never to die
away. During the seventeenth century artists who illus-
trated books followed each other without interruption, becoming more and
more numerous. We must in the first rank place Sukénobu, who produced
his best works in 1730. He applied himself to the representation of
Japanese women under all aspects, and occupying themselves in every way ;
and as stuffs were at that date highly decorated, so the women he has
drawn are enveloped in robes showing a wondrous diversity of motives
and colours.
Sukénobu had pupils and successors who bring us down to the close
of the eighteenth century. The art of printing in colours, already for
some time originated and perfected, was now adapted for book illustration.
From Moronobu, by a series of intermediates down to Hokusai, one can
connect chronologically a library of books or albums of engravings of every
kind of shape, style, or impression, representing a world very original and
lively.
Engraving, properly speaking— the printed image on a loose sheet —
developed itself side by side with the book or album. So the most ancient
specimens of the art of printing in Japan are engravings. These were
religious images of the
roughest description that
were sold in the temples
of Buddha, and which repre-
sented that god or some
local saint. Quite at the end
of the seventeenth century,
under the impulse given by
Moronobu, Japanese engrav-
ing entered upon a phase
which was shortly to be
greatly enlarged — the repro-
duction of the faces of actors
ARTISTIC JAPAN.
and scenes in the theatre. The first specimens of these were
printed in black, like all the engravings of the seventeenth cen-
tury ; but shortly after they were touched with a brush, and
then, between 1710 and 1720, they commenced to be printed in
one or two tones of colour.
Coloured engravings now made rapid progress, and in
the course of the eighteenth century arrived at great finish.
First of all there are the Torii, who succeeded each other
and form a complete school. They produced figures of actors
printed in a sombre tone, but very vigorous, and which must
form the foundation of every collection of coloured prints.
After them Katsugawa Shunshô, the master of Hokusai,
with his two pupils, Shunyei and Shunko, have cleverly
depicted actors and their contemporaries.
Extending coloured engraving beyond the theatrical
world, powerful artists adapted it to the portrayal of
feminine figures, popular scenes, social gatherings, scenes
from romances, history, battles, and lastly to landscape.
It is thus that at the end of the eighteenth century, from
1770 to 1800, Japanese coloured prints arrive at such
perfection with a series of great designers, who by the
fulness and purity of their outlines, and the harmony of
their composition, have left many admirable works ; notably
such men as Harunobu, Kionaga, Yeishi, Toyokuni, the elder, and lastly
U tamaro.
Every one of these ar-
tists has his peculiarity and
possesses certain qualities ;
but if it were necessary to
choose one from the others
for the first place, I should
select Kionaga. His strong
style, free from all manner-
isms, grasps life in a search-
ing manner. The variety
of attitude, the ease of pose,
the facial expression, and
Vignette, taken from an envelope for a letter.
f Fugiyama, by Hoku?ai.
ARTISTIC JAPAN.
the broad treatment of the landscape serving for
background, make his work very important.
The larger coloured engravings of the present
century lose the great elegance which characterised
those of the last century. They have not the same
harmony of lines and soberness of colouring ; but
in spite of having become entirely popular art, they still maintain great
power and vitality, when treated by Toyokuni, the younger, Kunisada,
Kuniyoshi, and beyond all Hiroshige, the artist of landscape. . Whilst larger
coloured prints were losing some of their refinement, another species full of
delicacy arose and developed itself. I allude to those refined compositions
called Surimonos , of which artists, in the earlier half of this century,
produced a very small number of proofs, and which they gave to their
friends or distributed among the members of the little tea-drinking societies
on the occasion of certain fêtes and anniversaries. Printed in the most
careful way, first in quiet and subdued tones, and later with metallic lustre
added, these surimonos were unequalled and unique in the
annals of the printer’s art.
Hokusai — born 1760, died 1849 — arrived as
a sort of giant to crown the art of printing in
Japan. He appeared at an early age under the
name of Shunrô, and as he laboured without ceas-
ing until his death, his works extend to a period
of over fifty years. He found it possible also to
take up every style of Japanese engraving, so his
78
ARTISTIC JAPAN.
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&*&?*?■* t * W • m ^ A , -
productions are of an unlimited and sur-
prising extent. Illustrations for
romances, history, poetry,
from the
tiny popu-
lar books
to the edi-
tions of
forty, fifty,
and eighty
volumes ;
endless books and
albums, showing in
every phase life in
J apan ; men, beasts,
and landscape, and
selections of ornament intended for trade purposes ; instruction by example
in the art of drawing, large coloured plates in every style, endless suri-
monos , notices, maps, and industrial engravings ; — Hokusai has treated every
form with equal success. His work, overflowing with life and movement,
is full of truth ; it includes popular comicalities and pathetic scenes — the
grotesque and the terrible. His work constitutes a monument complete in
itself, which embraces everything to be seen by the eye or invented in the
brain of a Japanese.
A Village in the Province of Shinano, by Hokusai.
THEODORE DURET.
Taken from the Gakas-ii/ciy
by Hokusai.
DESCRIPTION OF PLATES.
In the article on engraving which forms the chief matter of this number, Mr. T. Duret has
drawn attention to three names — viz., Moronobu, Kiyonaga, and Hokusai — rand these therefore
have the first place among our series of illustrations.
Plate HB is after an engraving by Hishigawa Moronobu, one of the earlier masters, who
at the close of the seventeenth century laid the foundations of an era of great notability in
the annals of book illustration in Japan, having given the best efforts of his genius to his art.
In his engravings the absence of colours and of every complicated method is noticeable.
The manner of working, alone shows the genius, and it does so with great decision, without
the help of any elaborate modelling, giving an almost sculptured appearance of relief to the
figures represented, enduing them with the appearance of life, and gathering them together
in groups full of movement representative of the heroic and popular characters of their era.
The Plate HB is from the Wakoku Hiaku Jo, literally “Japanese Women,” a work in
three volumes, which reproduces all sorts and conditions of Japanese women in their every-day
employments.
According to a common custom of the time a portion of each page of the book is given
up to the text, which offers some explanation for the picture, and is often some original idea,
expressed in picturesque language.
Plate IIII, after Kiyonaga, shows us that eighty years of careful technical study certainly add
a charm to the severe formula he laid down for himself at the commencement of his artistic career.
A collection of charmingly subdued and striking bright colours has been created by his hands,
and he adorns his work with lovely combinations of them. His prints show complete mastery
over his art.
Torii Kiyonaga (about 1770) played an important part in the development of engraving.
He resolutely broke through the archaic style of the other Torii, his predecessors, as shown in
the figures of the actors of Kiyomitsu, of which a specimen was given in No. V. ; he reached an
advanced stage of art quite modern in style, in which we see landscapes representing great
stretches of country full of atmosphere and light, with various distances in perfectly correct
perspective, and animated by thoroughly life-like and strong figures. The one before us is a view
on the banks of the Sumida gawa (gazva means “river”), with its charming banks on which the
town of Yeddo is built, the home of hundreds of artists. This engraving only forms a portion
of the whole composition, which spreads over three leaves, of which each is double the size of our
reproduction. This plate is not borrowed from any book, but belongs to a kind of engraving
that was published separately, called in Japanese, Ichi-mai'-ye (pictures in one piece).
In Plate IE we are still on the luxuriantly planted banks of the Sumida, this time led there
by Hokusai. He shows us a small family of people making their way, some autumn evening, by
the side of the river. Ehrst of all, there is a young widow — this shown by her girdle being tied in
front — and two girls accompanying her ; while they are followed by a little street boy, who has
been hired to carry the purchases made, no doubt, by these young ladies, at some fête. On the
80
ARTISTIC JAPAN.
other hand, there is the river, with a curtain of trees beyond it, and behind them there are
seen some great white banners. The figures, rather awkward, and of an almost comical appear-
ance, seem to be very different from the stately matrons that Kiyonaga has shown us. Hokusai
himself will also, shortly, alter the idea he has formed of women ; he will make, in time, heroic
figures to people his romances of chivalry ; and when he has undertaken the portrayal of popular
life, he will discover models of more solidity. But in his earlier years, when the young artist
loves the poetry of refined forms, he cannot produce designs in which heaviness could be seen —
and his hand has not yet that astonishing dexterity which will allow him to play wondrous tricks
with his brush. But even now his execution is clever, and almost feminine in its refinement, and
modest in its pretensions. Do not let us regret this. In this early, rather timid manner, the
artist has left us a world of charming beings full of poetic feeling, and which bring to our mind
the old nooks which Ghilandajo and Botticelli have drawn. These reminiscences are only appli-
cable to the figures themselves, for the landscape in which they move surprises us by its modern
character and the method by which it is treated is entirely original. One great principle is
adhered to throughout — absolute simplicity. The artist has firmly resolved to eliminate from his
sight anything that might have a disturbing effect in proximity to the particular subject he wishes
to bring before us — a group of people, standing out clearly in the brightest colours against a vast
distance, bounded only by a well-defined horizon. This is the theme proposed for himself in this
instance. One can discuss, if one chooses, the object of this principle, but we ought at any rate
to do homage to a genius capable of putting a question to us so clearly.
Plate IC. Mandarin Ducks, by Hokusai. It is curious to come straight from the youthful
work of this master, to the page of birds which shows us the handiwork of the artist towards the
decline of his life. As he has grown older, his ideas have enlarged themselves, and at the same
time his brush has acquired freedom, and a strength more and more master-like — and here
we see him at his greatest perfection. One point only still remains unchanged with the old
man among all those that we have seen altered since his early works ; that is, the empty space
round the subject presented, by which means it is shown with the greatest intensity. In the
plate before us, a shower of snowflakes fallen on the ground alone break the repose of the
surroundings, and in spite of a rather minute representation of them, the impression conveyed by
the two birds, taking the whole page, is marvellously striking.
This engraving is taken from a volume containing only fifteen designs, all of this shape.
The book is considered the finest specimen of its kind. Its great rarity is to be deplored, but it
seems that only a very limited number were printed in the first instance. It is called “ Shashin
Gwafu ” — which mean drawings “ from nature ” — and the preface of the book accentuates the
meaning of the title. It was written by a friend of the artist’s, called Hirata, and drew great
attention to the genius of Hokusai’s work.
The preface bears witness, besides, to the great estimation in which the artist was held, at any
rate, among some of his contemporaries, whose opinion of him seems to coincide with ours.
“ Hokusai,” the writer says, “ is unlike any one else. While all his predecessors were more or less
slaves to classic traditions and hard rules, he alone has allowed his brush to draw according to
the feelings of his heart, and he executes what he sees with his eyes, which love nature.” It is
certain that this friendly admiration was but little exaggerated.
Plate AJA Sparrows among bamboos, after a Kakemono by Nôsan, school of Shijo.
Sparrows and bamboos in Japan are associated by nature, and every artist has depicted
81
ARTISTIC JAPAN.
them thus, and there is, besides, nothing more tempting to the master of the brush than this
plant with its supple and delicate branches bending in graceful curves at every breath ot
wind ; and nothing in the world could better complete the picture than its most customary
inhabitants, with their lively ways, hopping from branch to branch, in every imaginable
attitude, but with various changes which defy the sharpest eye. How wonderfully do the Japanese
depict these ever-altering poses ! We hear of set rules, and it may be that the children learn
in their earliest youth to draw in various attitudes the body of a bird, just in the way that
they learn to draw the geometrical outline of a house. But it also seems that, in the most
diversified designs, here and there sections of birds are introduced in order to train the eye
in their anatomy.
Plate AJB. A piece of satin, date sixteenth century, with a decoration of peacocks. The
ground of it is worn and the colours are faded ; but, thanks to the excellence of the
manufacture, the design of the decoration still shows in all its original clearness. When one
looks at the strength of the outline and the correctness of the drawing, and the noble bearing
of the bird standing on the trunk of a tree, one feels as if one was regarding a picture rather
than a fragment of clothing, and that it had no other object but to take the place of some
water-colour drawing, with its fineness and delicate silky appearance. Such effects are hardly
to be recommended as examples for our workmen, except as decorations for our rooms ; but
they are appropriate to the grandeur of the dresses of the nobles in Japan, where, contrary to
our customs, materials of great width are worn, which lend themselves to the showing off of
large and handsome compositions for designs.
The pattern of the robe of which this is a portion represents a design formed of peacocks
on the branches of pine trees. It is made, to a certain extent, in the same way as the finer
European stuffs of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.
Plates DI, EA and HH show us a series of decorative designs. The first is a ray-like
design, consisting of the needles of the pine trees, which are combined with round figures
with cut-out edges. A certain brightness is given by the star-shaped ornaments, which,
although they are somewhat stiff, remind one of petals of flowers.
The design (EA) of bamboos almost amuses one by the picturesque entanglement of its
branches. Seen alone, on a white ground, this design shows imperfections, which, from a
decorative point of view, leave the eye unsatisfied, and it is certain that it was intended to
be shown on some solid ground which should bring the scattered lines together and display
them in their true beauty.
HH is a specimen of a very natural form of decoration. It is formed of trunks of
trees, with rough and cracked bark, and their branches cut off — only a few twigs carelessly
thrown, as it were, to break the monotony of the ground with their delicate shoots.
Plate HF. Three vases in bronze, date eighteenth century. The centre one, and the
one on the right, are reproduced at half their real size, and the conical tube is reduced
two-thirds. The last-mentioned specimen loses, by reduction, the fulness of outline which
constitutes its particular beauty. The perpendicular ring which is noticed at the level of
the handles is for fastening the vase to the wall.
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HOKUSAI’S “MAN-GWA.”
Thou, whom we call “ Hokusai,”
venerable artist of this Japan that we
would know and love, do thou impart
to us some of thy secrets ! Thou art
always young, and we grow prematurely
old. We hear that thou hadst the weight
of fifty-four years upon thee when
thou didst commence thy Man-gwa,
ARTISTIC JAPAN.
but we know that thou created it in the spirit of a youth of twenty
years. Repeat to us, Genius of the North, that thou hast always
loved Nature- — tell us that she is a sweet mistress! One will perhaps
look at her with more loving eyes when the age of spectacles is
reached. What tender feelings must she have for him who, since
his first youth, has given himself up to her worship !
Is it merely a love-affair or a solemn marriage ? It argues,
somehow or other, that Nature and the Japanese must be very
opposed in sentiment to each other that we should be in error
when we state that they had formed a love-match, an indes-
tructible and passionate alliance.
Whatever may happen, whatever discovery may be made,
whatever the yet unknown, the extreme East, may have in
reserve for us, we shall always be sure that the Japanese have
been real lovers of nature, and that Hokusai is a charming enter-
tainer. One might well have carved on his modest tomb the verses that the
scholars of the Renaissance composed for the tomb of Virgil, “ Here
rests he whom Nature feared as her rival, and whose funeral seemed, as
it were, her own.”
If it is admitted that Hokusai is worthy a place in the first rank of inde-
pendent and original artists, one must assign to him immediately a characteristic
which he shares with the most highly inspired of the masters of our Western
Art, namely, unconsciousness. It is clear that this wonderful man never knew
his own value. We know that he lived in poverty, died at an advanced age and
full of years — that he worked for trade purposes, did much book-illustra-
tion, and changed his residence and his name according to his fancy.
From this we gather that he was a philosophical and simple
artist, applying himself to all branches of art, identifying
himself with no particular one — in fact, an inspired being,
a nomad of the great artist-family. If we could have
paid him a visit some fifty years ago, perhaps in
some little room in Yedo, and if we
had told him that what came from
his brush would in the hereafter
be an invaluable and world-wide
lesson — he would in all probability
have laughed at us. And perhaps
Fishers, taken from The Hundred Views
of Fujiyama, by Hokusai.
-- - . ± . ...
ARTISTIC JAPAN.
we might have done him harm — we might have altered his
simplicity.
Japan was in his time in a healthy state; but there were
evidently then, as now, various forms of public opinion. That of
the old school attached itself to ancient forms, as a protest against
the popular school which also had its public. The genius of Hokusai
pleased the humble mind, whose instinctive criticism appreciated the
novelty of his manner — an aestheticism more liberal, with stronger lines
and greater wealth of fancy combined with a thorough intention of fol-
lowing Nature in her most rapid changes, than the schools which preceded it.
Hokusai worked because of his personal desire to do so — because
he longed to create — like Rembrandt when he engraved on copper —
without thinking of himself. He threw to the winds his lovely works,
which disappeared it mattered not where. They now return to
us, forming hundreds of volumes which we do not hesitate
to add to the library of Art which includes the
whole world.
It is not our purpose now to study Hokusai as
a painter— he was a great painter — -but as a designer
of illustrations ; and as such his Man-gwa is doubtless
his greatest work. Man-gwa means literally “rapid sketches,’’
and we have fourteen portfolios of these, containing some
thousands of varied subjects, printed in the simplest manner at a
minimum of expense. No one can pass over the marvellous effects
produced by the Japanese in wood-engraving and coloured printing. In
the last number of this magazine we gave a lengthy explanation of their
method of work.
It is curious that the Japanese have never taken to engraving on copper.
The reason in all probability is because their only instrument for writing is
the brush, charged with Indian-ink — at the same time the freest and the
broadest of all writing appliances.
Hokusai had the good fortune to have his originals beautifully engraved
— as facsimiles of brush-work nothing can equal a good copy of the Man-giva ;
it seems as if they were the original drawings from the artist’s
hand.
The Man-gwa is, as it were, an encyclopaedia. The Japanese,
imitating the Chinese, appear to have always taken pleasure in
»5
ARTISTIC JAPAN.
By Keisai Yeisen.
repetitions, and their methodical minds delighted in classifica-
tion and information set out in regular order. Thus it is
that they were induced to make a species of index
to Nature herself. The Man-gwa is neither the
first or the only dictionary of this description.
Beginning in 1745, Morikuni published, in nine
volumes, the Jiki-Shiho , an encyclopaedia of the
designer’s art. One finds there examples of the methods of
drawing flowers, birds, trees, landscapes, or groups ; and there
are other collections which resemble celebrated works by
Japanese and Chinese artists of later date. Scenes of popular
life and theatrical incidents were collected in the Imbut-su-
sogwa (1722), in the Yeihon Yamato-hiji, besides a quantity of
other volumes. According to local custom, collections such as
these and the Man-gwa are intended for instruction, and may
almost be termed school-books. They are intended to pass from
hand to hand, to be useful to young people, artists, and more
particularly to artisans.
It is impossible to repeat too often that the union of the
arts— smaller and greater — is perfect in Japan; the study of
nature is their common base. Drawing is thus the foundation
of the industrial arts themselves. In the famous epoch of
Genroku (1688-1704), Korin, a thoroughly impressionist artist,
and making lacquer himself, gave designs for lacquer-makers.
5 His family revived the Ceramic Art. They who engraved
sword-guards were painters in their way ; and such were the
designers for the cotton-weavers and embroiderers- — Moronobu,
Goshin, Toyokuni. Hokusai himself gave models for china-
manufacturers, lacquerers, and decorators of every sort.
Let us see Hokusai such as he is, when depicted by him-
self in a little preface which he wrote, and which is just what
we can imagine of him. “Since I was six years old,” says
the painter, “ I have been in the habit of drawing the shapes
of objects. Towards my fiftieth year I published an infinity
of designs ; but I am not satisfied with anything I produced
before my sixtieth year. It is at my seventieth year that I am
more or less able to understand the forms of birds, fishes, etc.
Wild Geese, taken from The Hundred Views of Fujiyama, by Hokusai.
ARTISTIC JAPAN.
This preface finishes in the hope that — “at the
age of a hundred and ten everything from my brush,
whatever it is, may be full of life.”
Let us picture him to ourselves at the edge of
a rice-field, out for a walk, enveloped in fog,
or leaning out of his window. The world seems
to him a diorama. Exterior objects all strike
him with an almost equal intensity ; he has
not the idea of things that are worth and that
are not worth reproducing— he loves all
things equally ; and all he sees, feels,
breathes, dreams, he draws on paper.
He jots it down, and then has it en-
graved. With us this would be con-
sidered presumption. It is not so
with him in Japan. When one of his
portfolios was full, he made of it a
volume of the Man-gwa , and number-
less artisans took advantage of his great talent.
It is from the Man-gwa and similar collections that the endless variety
of ornamentation on Japanese nicknacks of modern make is borrowed.
According to thoroughly trustworthy authorities, Hokusai commenced
about 1810 the series of the Maii-gwa. According to his idea, the first
volume was destined for his pupils and for schools and workmen. He was
not well known at this date as a painter. On the very finest paper, fastened
to a block of cherry-wood, he sketched down all that passed through his
mind, without ambition, without interest, without haste. It took him thirty
years* to publish the four-
teen volumes of the Man-
gwa, designing at the same
time an immense quantity
* The first volume is dated 1S14,
and the second, third, and fourth all
appeared in order after that. From
the fifth onwards Hokusai was assisted
by his son-in-law and one or two
pupils. No. 8 dates from 1819, and
Nos. 11 and 12 are after 1830. Nos. 13
and 14, interrupted by the death of
the artist, were published in 1849 and
1851.
Taken from The Hundred Views of Fujiyama , by Hokusai.
ARTISTIC JAPAN.
Ey Keisai Yeisen.
notice of
of illustrations for the principal bookseller in Yedo. But the
success of the Man-gwa was phenomenal.
With three tints— a black, a soft grey, and sometimes a
light brick-red — three little cups placed by his side, the artist
produced effects perfectly imitating nature. It seems — and on
this subject we should like further knowledge — that the Japanese
painter had some particular education of the eye, and that he
was aided by it and a trained and carefully-instructed memory.
This will explain the apparent emptiness of his outlines, the
simpleness of his decorations, and the dreamy look of his
drawing of solid objects. One notices the same with artists
wrho get quite familiar with some subject and then turn their
back on it in order to reproduce it better. In fact, their eye
is naturally photographic, and takes, as it were, a twofold
objects.
Let us glance at the “ rapid sketches.” Grotesque and grinning gods,
scenes of every-day life, pleasant and otherwise — types of artisans, jesters,
conjurors, jugglers, beggars, bathers, travellers, birds, beasts, fishes, insects, and
flowers — views of mountains and seascapes, studies of trees and grasses, build-
ings, and landscapes ; these, although only in one volume, are almost a
summary of the whole series ; and there are more than three hundred
sketches on fifty pages. It is, in fact, an entire review of the Japanese
people. The personages and the objects represented are hardly two inches
high, and are thrown carelessly from top to bottom of the pages, without
ground to stand on or
background to give
them relief. But they
are in such thoroughly
natural attitudes, each
having its peculiar
movement and charac-
teristics, that they seem
ready to move, and
one may truly say they
appear full of life. In
this first volume of the
Man-gwa , too, that
Bridge, by Hiroshige.
ARTISTIC JAPAN.
deep sense of humour, which is one of the most striking traits of the
Japanese and which Hokusai shared so strongly that it is shown on every
page of his illustrations, is most strongly revealed.
In quickly analysing the subsequent volumes, we may mention, in No. 2,
dragons, reptiles, recluses working miracles, scenes of manufacturing business,
wrestling contests, physiognomies reproduced in masks, effects of snow
clouds, the aurora borealis, natural curiosities, rare animals— a museum of
endless variety without method or choice.
In No. 3, semi-human monsters, a terrible figure of a' Japanese Gorgon,
chaotic landscapes and hideous combinations of the elements evolved in a
delirium unknown to us.
No. 4 appears to be one of the most interesting, with its demonology,
its sketches of trees seen by night, full of snow,
whipped by the wind, beaten by the rain, and with
its airy landscapes, mingled with clever reproduc-
Somehow it seems as if they had 1
copied from Chinese models. This, als
noticeable in No. 6 ; but this number
contains wonderful studies of movement-
handsome horses, and a whole collection of \
fencing, shooting with cross-bows, and wrestl
No. 5 contains pages full of theatrical scenes,
romantic pictures, and striking views of architec-
ture gathered together on some journey.
tions of life.
No. 7 contains hardly anything beside
landscapes and aspects of nature. One
finds in it geological curiosities and quaint
effects of cloud and fog, far-stretching
landscapes, and bird’s - eye views of
whole countries. It belongs to the sore
of book called Meisho — a species of
traveller’s guide-book which teaches one
all that is to be considered interesting:
in a country.
Every province has its Meisho ; and
Hokusai 'himself, when he designed the
Taken fropi Yoshivara , by Outamaro.
MUM, JU
ARTISTIC JAPAN.
Ftigaku Hyakukei , or The Hundred Views of Fuji, did
not intend to do more than add a volume to this
series of picturesque guides.
In No. 8 there are some very remarkable grotesque
faces, and some studies of very fat and very
thin men, which are full of vitality ; in No. io
some very graceful figures of women, some
battles, and some imaginary
battle-scenes. Hokusai now
enlarged the size of his books,
and produced some genuine
works of art.
There is in No. io a
wonderful series of prodigies
shown at fairs, and little people making speeches ; and besides these, my-
thological creatures that make one’s flesh creep, and many fanciful drolleries
— in fact, a surprising collection of the real and the
unreal. In the nth and 12th numbers is a capital
collection of painters at work, actors, clowns, men
making grimaces with hideous appearance.
Lastly, Nos. 13 and 14 are quite up to the
standard of the rest ; no weariness shows itself — one
finds the same lovely figures and charming landscapes
sketched with the same firmness, with the same freeness
of hand which characterises the former numbers.
ARY RENAN.
By Toyokuni.
( To be continued in No. 9.)
90
Fishers, by Hokusai.
DESCRIPTION OF PLATES.
Plate EF is taken from the first volume of the Man-gwa, by Hokusai. From the same
source we have already taken other plates for this Magazine.
Hundreds of pages might be reproduced before the limit could be found of this wonderful
collection, with its endless variety of subjects, of which every one is so lively and so true in its
feeling that the most inexperienced eye grasps its character at once. On the page under
notice — at the top, to the left — is a man stirring some compound, the odour of which seems by
no means to please his neighbour. Next, we see a young woman engaged in the arrange-
ment of her hair — always a most complicated business for a Japanese lady, and which, in the
case of the working classes, is not always undertaken every day. Most elaborate preparations
are made, including a good wash of the oil of camellia, and the hair is made sufficiently greasy
to remain unruffled for some long time, even during the night, when the head is supported by a
pillow — most inappropriately thus named, for it is in fact a little curved block of wood which
is placed horizontally under the nape of the neck. Against the toilet-box, placed in front of
the lady, there rests the metal mirror, of which, in the drawing, one only sees the curved top.
Next, is a peaceable personage listening in an attitude of philosophic resignation to his some-
what severe wife ; while, in another familiar scene, a good-natured father, pretending to be some
hideous monster, only partially succeeds in frightening a knowing little lad, who, covering his
eyes behind the broad sleeves of his coat, laughs loudly. Now comes a performer on the samisen,
with his face hidden by means of a mask made of a piece of paper, with holes cut for his nose
and eyes. A procession of pilgrims, with the great hats they regularly wear, is seen walking
away from the spectator. A juggler is catching a saké bottle and drinking-cups, and beside
him a Samurai seems to equal him in dexterity, for he is doing the conjuror with the lance of
his honoured Daimio.
The other portion of the page, always commencing from the left — contrary, it is true, to the
usual Japanese custom — begins with a wonderfully foreshortened sketch of a child-priest, over-
come by the soporific effect of the prayers that he has to learn. Of the two people who turn
their back on the young neophyte, one is blind and the other paralytic. These are some of
the repulsive beggars that used in former times to infest the great roads of Japan, and which
one only meets nowadays in the towns of Northern China. Those who have not found them-
selves side by side with them in a crowd, can hardly imagine the sensation produced by the
contact, or, in fact, only the sight of their emaciated forms, nearly always entirely naked.
The squatting figure is a priest begging the charity of the passer-by. He arrests attention
by beating a small copper gong that he carries with him.
91
ARTISTIC JAPAN.
This same method is resorted to by the other Belize, of a superior grade, whom we notice
in the middle of the page; but this one is followed by his servant, both of them wearing
round hats like mushrooms.
A more pleasing picture is that of a young female street-musician who faces them.
A shopman, clad in a straw kilt, who seems passing on with hurried footsteps, bears on
his shoulder the symbolic pestle, decorated with a fringe of paper, which from time immemorial
has figured in certain popular Buddhistic fêtes. Lower down, a jovial fellow empties the liquid
contents of a pail over his head. This is an act of penitence, done to move the tutelary god
Fudo, who cures maladies, protects against fire, and brings luck in commercial enterprises.
The penance is practised in the winter time, when the weather is coldest, and with water
almost iced. Warriors, it seems, with a similar propitiatory object, take ultra-refreshing baths
before a battle. In the case before us, the man seems to be very delighted at having so treated
himself ; for we see him in the next sketch balancing the empty pitcher on the end of his
thumb, to the inexpressible delight of a collection of children, who surround him, uttering cries
and making gesticulations.
Plate GI. In No. 4 of this Magazine we gave a landscape borrowed from the series of the
thirty-six views of Fujiyama by Hokusai, which was distinguished by the great richness of its
colouring. The present engraving is taken from a work by the same artist, also given up to the
celebrated mountain, but printed in gray ink, and having for its title, The Hundred, Views
of Fujiyama.
Nowhere more than in these charming pages is the gift of humour, caustic wit, and the
power of depicting the bright side of things noticeable, and the sympathetic temperament which
is able to choose the most charming aspect of a subject, and at the same time to capture
its most original and freshest appearance, is here easily to be recognised.
We now find the artist at work on the curious task which he imposed on himself. It
seems as if he must limit himself to going round the immense peak and studying its various
configurations, planning for himself an interesting study in the changing lights and shades of
the day. But we must not forget his temperament and his desire for original effect, avoiding
commonplaceness as the most humiliating of all signs of weakness.
If the celebrated mountain is always the chief subject, he determines it shall be also the
single point round which shall centre the varied actions of divers beings he will depict, and
interest shall be added by the large collection of accessories he collects, all full of life and
interest owing to his clever draughtsmanship.
Now we see the mountain beyond a stretch of transparent reeds ; now it is concealed in a
fog, which has the effect of bringing out upon its sides outlines of dreamy shapes intangible
and fastastic ; now a little cloud hangs over the crest of the mass, and our artist shows us
“ Fuji with his hair done,” as it is called in Japan when so seen ; or, again, he chooses the
precise moment when the round sun seems to form, with the cone-shaped crater, “ a mirror
with its handle.” Further on, a submerged field reflects the whole mountain reversed, which
he names the “ Volcano in the Water,” and then Fuji is en fête on the seventh day of the seventh
92
ARTISTIC JAPAN.
month Tanabata, when it is looked at through the bright-looking masts decorated with streamers,
which seem to bend themselves before the majestic giant. The fresh green grass seems to
clothe it with its charming covering, and wonderful is its peak when it emerges from behind
flowering trees in the foreground ; yet again it will appear thrown in shadow on a screen, the
partition in a house, as if it were a kakémono fastened on the wall, thus showing the probable
origin of these decorations. A fisherman holds high in the air his net before he drops it into the
water. This is just the right framing for the wonderful outline as seen through the meshes, and
nothing can be greater than the astonishment of the man drinking, when he finds, just as he puts
the cup to his lips, that there is a miniature reflection of the same Fuji which shows itself again
here on a tiny scale. Another page is entitled “the three whites” — the snow, the stork, and the
mountain. Three framings are improvised for this picture — the wide mouth of a cavern, the arches
of a bridge, and the stretched-out legs of a cask-maker, standing upon the edges of a great
barrel, in order to make it circular by striking it with his hammer.
Other remarkable pages to be mentioned are “ Fuji seen through a cascade,” and through
a spider’s-web, with one or two comic ideas, such as that of “ Fuji through the keyhole,”
and that of the comparison by some facetious traveller of the swollen appearance bn the
mountain side the day after an eruption with the enormous goitre in the neck from which
his companion suffers.
Thus one sees that, if ever there is any occasion for the primary subject of the picture to
be of little importance, this is counterbalanced by other matters of interest, and invariably by great
animation. Everything lives and moves, and all the scenes are rendered with a truthfulness
which is striking in the extreme. In this book we begin to understand the genius of Hokusai ;
and it is to it that the lover of Japanese Art returns with the greatest pleasure after having
surveyed the immense quantity of the productions of this artist.
Plate IH. A night fête at Yedo, by Outamaro. This subject is eminently worthy of
representation.
No fête we have ever seen in Europe can compare with the spectacle formed by the
Sumida-gawa on a lovely night, when its waters are literally covered with a mass of every
variety of boat, all illuminated in the most artistic taste.
From one bank to another all is gaiety. The boats touch each other, and the merry-
makers speak to each other, or address each other without any former acquaintance and with no
regard for caste or other exigencies. A thousand jests are exchanged ; and, when the firew'orks
rise into the air, there are immense shouts and deafening cries of delight. On the river banks
the tea-houses, glittering in the light of their great bright paper lanterns, are filled by a crow'd
no less lively than that on the water, and the samisen adds its classic sound to all the babel
which is kept up far into the night. It is not only artists of the popular school who have tried
on various occasions to reproduce this spectacle ; one is almost astonished at the various
repetitions, and the constancy of the public to them.
93
ARTISTIC JAPAN.
The same feeling strikes one with regard to a great number of other subjects which one
notices constantly, and which have been produced and reproduced for centuries.
This is the result of a very characteristic peculiarity of the doctrines of Japanese Art
teaching, and one of those which throws a bright light on the degree of artistic education
among the masses. With us, that which in all new works first takes the fancy of the public
and which attracts their attention most, is some subject with a story in it ; the examination of
the qualities of the work are constantly only thought of as secondary details. In Japan, some
pleasant subject is taken, and it is the manner in which the artist treats it which, in the
eyes of the people, shows the talent. It matters not to the artist if the subject of his picture
is as old as the world itself ; indeed, it seems that the more it is taken from popular traditions,
the more sympathetic is it to the public taste.
What is necessary, however, is that the work should be harmonious in effect, both as to
its lines and its colours ; and it must be shown how the subject lends itself to the particular
style of work of the artist producing it in order to distinguish if it is well or ill executed.
Briefly, what is wanted is, first of all, a satisfaction given to the artistic feelings of the eye ;
and then attention paid to the analytical eye, which affects to be knowing in all the details
of execution of a work. One may make the objection that such criticism is apt to pass
over the ideal qualities which give rise to elevated ideas of genius and sentiment. That is true
up to a certain point in the case of popular art, whose principal object is the representation
of exterior life, and which aims more particularly at brightness of decorative effect — which is
the chief object of the plate before us. It is not for us, at the present moment, to trespass
into the domains of another style of art, of which we shall shortly give some examples, which
is less brilliant, but of a far more æsthetic feeling and full of the poetry of form. But each
artistic style has its particular merits, and the popular school is at its highest standard under
Utamaro.*
We have, on other occasions, drawn attention to the strong artistic feeling of this artist in
his grouping of a number of personages, or plants and insects. In the case before us we can see
and admire him in one of his large compositions, of which, however, the size of our publication
allows us only to give a portion on a much reduced scale.
Night is the time chosen for the picture ; but, far from hiding in its darkness the figures
in the drawing of which he excels, the artist makes the obscurity a convenient tone on which
to bring out in the foreground his ladies, who are depicted in the brightest colours. Nothing
could be more unnatural, according to the laws of logic ; but it would be difficult to pitch on
anything more ingenious from an artistic point of view, which is the first object at the present
moment. One is charmed at the first sight of them, before one has time to recognise the trick
which has been played.
Plate CJ reproduces a study of the wild vine, painted in water-colour by an unknown
artist. We have chosen it on account of its extreme fineness of tone and execution, the
singular absence of detail in the work, and the great simplicity of the design.
* We have explained, in an earlier number, the chief points of this art of what we call the “popular school,” which is
hut a poor translation of the word “ Ukioyé.”
94
ARTISTIC JAPAN.
Thoroughly understanding his subject, the brush of the artist has been directed over the
paper with a touch as delicate as it was certain.
It is remarkable how cleverly the roundness of the stalk is represented, with its bends^
and how gracefully and naturally the stems are joined to the chief stalk. Observe the truth
of their curves, which are always varied, and the suppleness of the thin leaves waving lightly
in the air. It is this unconventionality and freedom from stiffness and dryness, so noticeable in
the original of our plate, which are the essential points necessary in reproducing the charm of
subjects from nature.
Plates CC and EJ form part of our series of decorative designs. Plate CC shows us a
pattern of waves, another formed by repetitions of the sacred gem, and a third devised of
girdle-boxes on a ground sprinkled over with cherry flowers. Plate EJ gives an example of
the possibility of making a decorative design from the most commonplace materials, the one
we illustrate being simply the combination of spiders’-webs.
Plate HA. Four sword-guards. That formed of beans is in cut iron, one of those numerous
productions which bear no artist’s signature, but which at the same time may be taken as
models of good taste, invention, and perfection of workmanship. In this case there is no
added ornament of encrusted metals, but the iron itself is sufficient ; and here, as in many
other cases, it is in the highast style of finished work. The number of sword-guards, of
every variety of style that have been manufactured for the last four or five hundred years
must have been very large. Every imaginable device has been made use of : plants, animals,
household articles, religious and legendary subjects, familiar scenes, and landscapes — in fact, the
whole world in epitome, as the Japanese sees it day by day. Nothing that an artistic mind
can think of has been left unappropriated, or has not been conventionalised, turned and
twisted in such a clever manner as to be possible of reproduction in the narrow space of a
sword-guard.
The guard, with two storks in full flight (again in plain, unadorned iron), belongs to the
same date as the first. It is signed by Kinai, an iron-worker of the eighteenth century.
Quite in a different style is the next, with the form of a toad cut through it, bearing the
signature, Takahashi Toshikiyo, and which uras made in the last years of the existence of old
Japan,* when the refinement and beauty of art-work was at its greatest height.
The border of this piece is the only part in iron, and from working and polishing it has
lost its usual appearance.
As smooth to the eye as it is to feel, it cannot rust, and it presents an almost silky
appearance. The body of the guard is in shibuichi, and into it the toad is cut, its outline
being of shakudo, and its eye added in gold.
* We only consider as modern those objects which have been made since the opening up of Japan to foreign nations —
that is to say, since 1868.
95
ARTISTIC JAPAN.
The animal is in the inspired attitude of a poet — a comic idea which is carried over on to the
reverse of the guard in a most clever way. The toad is there shown brandishing a golden
brush, while at his feet there is unrolled a sheet of paper on which he has just written a well-
known poem (composed, in reality, by Bashio, a seventeenth-century poet, when he was on
the banks of a fish-pond where the croaking race was disporting itself). On the side of the
guard turned towards us is represented, to the right of the animal, a book, and to the left the
stone on which is rubbed the Chinese ink that is used for writing.
The guard with a fish is seventeenth-century work. The vertical lines engraved on the
lightly-embossed plate represent a cascade ; and the association of the two ideas calls to mind
the popular picture of a carp jumping up a waterfall — which is intended as a symbol of great
energy and courage, and as a compliment paid to the warrior whose sword this guard will
encircle.
The metal is bronze, of a white patina, the fish is in gold, with eyes encrusted with
silver.
Plate BC, a Ni-ô mask, in red lacquered wood. The Ni-6 — literally, “two kings” — are
two colossal statues, which are placed before Buddhist temples, on either side of the entrance-
door, and which are supposed to act as guardians of the place. The expression of their
figures, terribly menacing, is according to traditions dating from the seventh century, when
Buddhism was introduced into Japan. The first sculptor gave them this appearance, and it is
the same type which from generation to generation has been handed down with but small
alteration. Originally, one of the two figures was supposed to represent the god Brahma (it
must not be forgotten that the divinities of the Brahma worship were added to the Buddhist
Pantheon), while the other, the subject of our plate, is Indra. This mask, which shows traces,
unfortunately, of its great antiquity, was used in the semi-religious plays which were originated
at a later date under the name of the Nô dances. It plainly shows the energy and strength
which characterise ancient Asiatic sculpture, and gives the highest idea of this little-known
branch of art.
Plate ID. It is strength which imparts the chief merit to the specimen before us— a
saké bottle made at Séto, in the province of Owari, where the earliest Japanese pottery was
manufactured. There is strength in the composition of the paste, in the lines of the shape, and
in the rich colour of the enamel. It is recognised at once that we are looking at a work at
least three hundred years old, because it is according to the strength that one can calculate the
age with almost perfect certainty. Our subject has no other decoration beyond the brightness
of the lustre of its enamel, which is allowed to run freely over the sides. If decoration,
added by a clever hand, gives the beauty which, according to the very general idea, is
the chief object to be attained in pottery, ornamentation based on richness of tones of
enamel produced in the firing arouses none the less admiration from an artistic eye. The
Japanese have so thoroughly appreciated this fact that their greatest potters, even after
having lent themselves to the imitation of painters’ work by the application of vitrifiable colours
96
ARTISTIC JAPAN.
in all sorts of designs, have always been attracted back again towards the ancient manner
of strength and simplicity shown in the work of early masters. From the colourists’ point of
view, the superiority, in the present case, is undeniable ; and when one takes in one’s hands
one of these brilliant pieces with, imposed upon it, layers of rich enamel, highly polished and
of the finest quality, when one feels the velvety surface, the sense of touch is as delightful
as the vision.
We have specimens from all the manufactories of Japan of these pieces of agate, jasper,
and variegated ware, and it is only the Satsuma factory, celebrated for its exquisite products,
with its delicate crackling so fine as to be like jewellery, which has not; reproduced
specimens of the ancient traditionary decoration in coloured enamels.
97
Contents of Number 8.
HOKUSAI’S “ MAN-GWA,” by Ary Renan 83
DESCRIPTION OF PLATES . . . 91
SEPARATE PLATES.
id. Séto ware — Saké Bottle.
EF. TWO Pages from the “ Man-gWa.” By Hokusai.
IH. Double Plate — Night Fête. By Utamaro.
CC. Three Industrial Designs.
GI. View Of Fuji-yama. By Hokusai.
HA. Four Sword-guards.
EJ. Decorative Design.
CJ. Study of Wild Vine.
BC. Buddhist Mask.
Ths Corcoran Gallery of Art?
Washing ion, I). C.
Gra». impr. par üitLor
cc
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Gra» mpr par Giliot
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impr. par Gil».OT
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1
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Gra*. impr. par Gillot
*
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A
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V
HOKUSAI’S MAN-GWA.”
(Cone hided.)
Alas, our enumeration of the contents of the Man-gwa must be
but dry and much abridged ! The Man-gwa is a whole world. One
asks what Hokusai can possibly have forgotten. There are no repetitions,
no omissions, and the volumes seem of a perfect equality.
How plainly it shows that, throughout, Hokusai had the intention of being
useful! He devotes several pages to studying the draughtmanship of rocks;
elsewhere he interests himself in the eddies in water, in the manner that
leaves are connected with stalks, and in the veins of these leaves. He
designs European firearms, carronades, and pistols ; he consigns to his sketch-
book studies of the effects of ice, mysterious grottoes, tidal waves. He
struggles with the rapidity of nature, in portraying geysers, a cyclone, clouds,
99
ARTISTIC JAPAN.
Woodman and Child,
by Hokusai.
flames, and even lightning. One sees how he loved move-
ment, he who determined to draw life from beginning to
end. To represent motion was his great ambition. It
is not correctness, effect, harmony, but movement itself
which he so desperately pursues, sacrificing all to attain this
object. This in reality is the chief characteristic of the work of
Hokusai — this it is that strikes us most, and — let us confess it at
once — it is this that puts us Westerns out of countenance. Our
art is entirely opposed to this. It is constructed on the absence of
movement, on a sort of perpetual retouching from nature. Move-
ment seems to us a burden upon truth — we mistrust it as an excess,
a danger.*
Movement! It is everywhere in Japanese Art — in architecture, in sculp-
ture, in drawing. Only the Great Buddha is quiescent, and he is so
eternally ; but at his feet life multiplies itself, and works in immoderate haste.
A swarm of pigmies moves round him — one might say the same of a mad
flight of insects dancing in a ray of sunlight round a lotus bloom. Japanese
artists delight in liveliness. Stiffness, heaviness, straight lines, logical and
carefully set rules are their aversion. They throw themselves recklessly into
amusement, only to stop when destitute of breath. Their means of expression,
simplified as much as possible, lend themselves admirably to rendering hurried
movements and spontaneity of action : as they are minute observers, so they
reproduce actions that we take no cognizance of.
There is nothing- in common between the art of the
extreme East and ours. The primary matter is different ;
curved lines abound, and, above all, perfect symmetry,
which is a powerful decorative medium, and constitutes
life, movement, freshness, and naturalness. The Japanese
paint the physical part of the universe without regarding
the fact that they are dealing with the moral part. They
do not portray joy, sorrow, love, faith, as we do ; they
paint strife, excitement, tragic and comic grimaces. Humour
is with us reserved for the lower styles of art; in Japan it
is one of the elements of the highest art, because humour
is produced by movement. The heroes of Japan, the
* I have explained my meaning on these questions in L Art Japonais , Paris, Chamerct,
IOO
ARTISTIC JAPAN.
Eucket of a Well, by Hokusai.
personages of romance, like the gods of the
Japanese Pantheon, have huge shapes, distorted
faces, and highly-strung nerves — all their animal
machine participates in action. It is evident that
there are two men in the author of the Man-gwa —
the naturalistic and the idealistic. One must not be
startled by this latter term. Hokusai is not only a
lover of visible nature ; he is a dreamer also, an
imaginative painter.
One is inclined, on superficially knowing the
art of the East, to consider the great Oriental races
as no more than industrious swarms of bees — and with but limited intel-
ligence ; a common instinct, we think, animates every individual, but there
is nothing out of the usual. The artists in those regions must produce
their works, as bees make honey, by some unknown means. Nevertheless,
when a personal wish is felt there, it is the shadow of a thought. The arts
of the East are naturalistic, and, above all, decorative, yet in certain cases
they play an imaginative part. In the Man-gwa these are side by side
with specimens of realistic work, scenes of imagination. The imaginative part
has two sources : —
1. The ancient religious legends. There 'exists in the Buddhist religion
— so full of serenity and beauty — an unlimited series of demon gods, a
Pantheon haunted by infinite devilry.
2. The artificial want general in all races, but
greatly developed in the Asiatic, to equal Nature
in her productions, not being able to equal her in
her forces. Such, it seems, is the origin of
caricature, which is an idealistic manifestation of
art. By a great psychological effort, the Asiatics
have created the hideous by studying the laws
of the beautiful. They have dreamt of the
monster, and have created him also ; they have
delighted in their work as a sort of defiance to
nature ; they have taken pride in giving the life
of artistic work — to that which never existed, to
fantastic animal forms, and to human shapes
convulsed by unnatural passions.
Edge of a Well, by Hokusai.
ARTISTIC JAPAN.
Hokusai produced dreams, visions, nightmares. These
visions have no connection with opium. Here and there
we meet such strange pictures in the Man-gwa that we feel
inclined to attribute them to the reminiscences of a confused
imagination, if we did not know the temperate habits of the
Japanese. All that drunkenness reveals to tormented
brains — all the forms which smoke can take for a devotee
easily worked upon and already affected by the poison —
all the exaggerations of the natural — all the “ artificial
paradises ” of which Ouincey, Poe, and Beaudelaire have insti-
tuted themselves trustees — unfold themselves in mad flights full
of grace or utterly terrible. Is it not remarkable to find in the
work of an artist of the extreme East the realisation of those
dreams and fancies which the most advanced schools of litera-
ture in England and France have believed to
be only encountered by them alone ? Who, we
ask, is the artist who has made a farther voyage
into the unreal world — we were
going to say the suggested world ?
However, Hokusai should
remain for us that which he is
beyond all — a reporter of nature.
When one is contented with a
simple outline, without interior
modelling, without light and
shade, without the artifices of
modelling, when one reduces, like the Japanese, one’s means to the very lowest,
it is a double triumph, when the strokes must speak for themselves : and
it is in this magic that Hokusai is the master. Ingres used to say that
one must be able to “ draw with a nail but he knew not the secret of varying,
of enriching or diminishing the
strokes. The Japanese’s brush
has also the full strokes and
the thin which have their
meaning, and it is often a
more manageable instrument
than the pencil. Truly, it paints
Gable end, on which is seated a Bird.
ARTISTIC JAPAN.
without colour, it accentuates, it caresses, it
bullies, it glides, it runs, it gallops. It is one
of the wonders of our time, almost of the past
year or two, that we have given evidence of an
eclecticism which enables us to grapple with the
arts of a distant and strange country. We
are very susceptible in the matter of art,
and at the same time somewhat conserva-
tive (we have, in some ways, good reason
for being so) ; but here is an absolutely
new world, which shows us some of its
concealed treasures. When Europe knows
them well, and appreciates them better, the
verdict will go “ Aye ” or “No ” has too high
an estimate been placed upon them ? The
Man-gwa is addressed beyond all to the
hardworking artisans who maintain our
industries. Why do they leave the country,
the streams, the fields, the sea ? Why
do they not surround themselves with
models from nature, brightly coloured and
lively ? Why do they not add seaweed, butterflies, a branch of clematis
to their limited designs ? If they loved their models as the author of
the Man-gwa loved his, they would pass from the rank of artisans to that
of artists.
This is what Hokusai taught, in his way, to his compatriots, and it is that
he preaches to us now, regardless of time and distance. There is a great
difference between the soul of the European and the Asiatic — it is an
abyss deeper than the Pacific. But some spirits cross the ocean like
birds and the pollen of plants carried on the wings of the wind. The
Japanese plant— if I may con-
tinue the simile — is as different
from the European plant as the
chestnut is from the palm or
the araucaria. Each one is
the natural outcome of certain
circumstances, and these cir-
Cock, by Shumboku.
-yama, by Hokusai.
ARTISTIC JAPAN.
cumstances, may be counted in thousands." The
Japanese artist is like a good, well-educated, honest
and light-hearted child. He lias a joyous faculty
of loving, observing, and remarking, which ancient
and worn-out races lose through the pre-occupation after
the work and toil and thought of centuries. The smallest Lacquer Design, by w.
thing amuses him — things which we pass over without noticing. He opens
his great intelligent eyes before the splendour of nature. At the age of
eighty was not Hokusai as receptive—- to employ an ugly modern word — as
a young child ? The exuberance of the old man surprises us ; it ought also
to touch us. Nothing has tarnished the brightness of his gaiety and his wit.
The world is a great garden in which he plays in innocence, making
charming posies and watching the flight of the butterflies.
Every one must at any rate gather from the Man- gw a the two following
lessons : —
i. The union between the greater and the industrial arts should be of
the closest, and be in no way humiliating
to the painter.
2. Love of nature and a continuous
study of the humblest objects in the
world make art fruitful and render it
infinite. A quarter of an hour of real
emotion is worth a whole day of over-
scrupulous study. Flowers are as worthy
of study as men.
ARY RENAN.
IO4
DESCRIPTION OF PLATES.
While M. Renan continues his study of Hokusai’s Man-gwa, we continue our reproduction of
some more of the endless scenes reflected in this mirror of Japanese life.
Plate DF combines two pages of the Man-gwa. That on the left has all the character of a
leaf torn from a pocket sketch-book, on which one has jotted down the image of every living thing
that had been seen during some long country walk. First we see the grasshopper, bending
his long legs before he makes a leap, and next an uncommonly large earwig makes his way
along with every appearance of elasticity. In a corner of the page there are grouped a spotted
spider, a humble bee with short wings, and some thin-bodied insect. A silkworm extends his
ringed body as he awaits his coming transformation. Lower down is a woodlouse, a chrysalis, an
ant, and a salamander, and, governing all of these, the form of a long snake marks the page with its
bending and graceful curve ; and at the bottom a space has been left just large enough for the fat
toad, in a quaintly foreshortened attitude with one foot lifted, thus showing the under part of its
slimy body. While, in drawing animals, Hokusai allows himself no freedom, and never considers
that he can follow nature too closely, it is quite different when he applies himself to his fellow-man.
He very willingly gives full play to his lively imagination and his caustic wit. The second half of
the present plate gives us some delightful examples. We are in the land of thin people, and before
us is a group of wrestlers. The great comicality of the picture is in the fact that Japanese wrestlers
(Sumos) are remarkable for their colossal size and fatness, the weight of the body being a
formidable point in a wrestling contest. At the same time, it would be judging Hokusai most
incorrectly if we considered that in a case of this sort also he allowed himself to dispense with
strict correctness in his representation of his subject. The personages, in spite of their unnatural
thinness, are anatomically perfect ; the intertwining of the bodies is marvellously represented, and,
under the desperate strain, the bones seem ready to break. The judge — to be recognised by the
traditional fan which is used as the signal in the contest — watches attentively every movement, and
seems vastly amused by so strange a spectacle. Two other wrestlers, not less emaciated than the
first, await their turn outside the sanded arena, which is bounded as usual by a circle of rolled up
straw.
Just as uncommon is the lower scene, in which the series of thin people is continued.
Dissension has arisen between man and wife in this case, and has degenerated into a
ferocious battle. Each one of the combatants has taken some household utensil ; already the
ground is strewn with broken earthenware, and matters might have become tragic had not
two officious neighbours run and separated the couple. Their task seems no easy one between
the enraged husband and wife. The confusion becomes general, and, as a result, we have most
original grouping and contortions quite fantastic.
•05
ARTISTIC JAPAN.
Plate CF. Are they still more caricatures, these twenty-four types of blind people that Hokusai
shows us on the curious page before us ? One might be tempted to believe so at the first glance, and
if one only judged superficially. M. Renan has proclaimed this truth, that those accustomed
to a too discreet reserve in the study of Japanese Art have naturally a tendency to mistake for
caricatures whât are, with the Japanese, no more than the vigorous expression of some rapid
movement. The same feeling comes when they find themselves in the presence of some strongly
characteristic specimen of facial expression. Let us beware, then, of misconstruing the intention of
our artist, who has evidently in the present case applied himself to a most serious study. It is to
trace the effects of blindness — that infirmity so common in Japan — on the visages of different
individuals according to the variations in their temperaments, their ages, or even their social status.
Here there was a wide field for observation, and doubtless most tempting to an artist no less
skilful in remarking the most subtle shades of character than in rendering them with wonderful
truth. How striking is the variety in the types represented ! And one discerns easily the attitude,
the character, and the expression which the malady has given them, changing the original
appearance of each person. With some the effects have been less severe, for they seem to submit
comparatively calmly to the ailment ; with others, in the place of gaiety, the intellect has remained
po less lively, but more inclined to iil-humour, to judge from their features. Other faces show
resigned sadness, stupefaction, and, almost, half-wittedness ; in fact, the whole plate is a truthful
picture of an interesting, but, unfortunately, far too numerous class.
Plate IB, by Hokusai, shows a pheasant in full plumage, preening his brilliant and luminous
feathers. Our plate is taken from the celebrated album, Shashin Gwafu, of which we have already
spoken (No. 7). We mentioned how rare it was to find proofs of this lovely book, of which few
of the great European libraries can boast specimens. Amongst these may be cited the Royal
Library at Leyden — to which Baron Siebold bequeathed his Japanese library at the very time that
the Shashin was published — the National Library of Paris, as well as the complete and splendid
private collections of Messrs. Louis Gonse and Th. Duret. Our principal collectors consider this
book the most remarkable specimen of Hokusai’s engraved work ; and this opinion is justified
by the splendid broadness with which the very varied subjects in the volume have been treated.
Plate AJC reproduces the subject of a kakémono from the brush of Teho-Sui, who belongs to
the Shijo School, as did the author of another kakémono representing sparrows and bamboos,
given in No. 7.
Is it necessary to again draw attention to the mastership of Japanese artists in such subjects
as that before us ? Do we want once more to demonstrate the variety and freshness of the
different aspects under which the same bit of nature, already treated a hundred times before,
presents itself from the artist’s brush ? Here, unlike the companion-scene that we have already given,
it is not the gentle fall of snow which, in Japan, ushers in the spring ; it is really terribly cold
in this grey atmosphere, and it seems not by accident that the artist has chosen such an effect. It
is his object to draw the sparrow, avoiding the affectations of its ordinary movements, and
106
ARTISTIC JAPAN.
searching for some shelter against the rigour of a wintry temperature. Huddled as close together
as possible, the little birds sit on the snowy branch fighting amongst themselves for the best place.
Plate BF is a portrait of an actor playing a woman’s part, painted by Shunyei, of the
Katsukawa School. We have before remarked that all the artists of this school adopted the
prefix “Shun,” from the founder, Katsakawa Shunsho. Shunyei was one of his greatest disciples,
and in portraits of actors he excelled. We do not consider it speaking too strongly when we
say that, among artists of every school, no one better than he could dress a personage : the folds
of his garments fall in complete ease, and the representation of the material itself is marvel-
lously realistic. We shall be able to further prove this by more representative specimens of
his work than that before us. It is, of course, necessary to explain the presence of the pipe in the
hands of a personage dressed as a woman. Every one knows these tiny utensils, indispensable to
every Japanese of either sex — indispensable, in fact, in the midst of a life of pleasure, where
manual labour is of secondary importance, constantly relighted in order to draw from them the few
puffs of smoke that so small a receptacle can give, then tapped in order to empty out the
remaining ashes before being replaced each time in its case, whence it is drawn again in a very
short space of time. Not even the shopman in the town or the labourer in the field dispenses
with this national habit, which produces a respite in work and produces perhaps some brief but
pleasant dreams.
A Design for Printing on Stuffs is composed of branches of chrysanthemum of different
varieties, from the commonest species, stiff and tight, to the most straggling sort, whose shrivelled
and tangled petals hang so picturesquely, and form a most graceful and original motive for
decoration.
Plates BI and DC are models of a like nature. The first is formed of the bold and beautiful
peony, of which two fragments are sufficient to cover a whole page. Plate DC represents a pool of
water furrowed by some rose-branches, over which a swarm of butterflies hovers.
In Plate HD three new forms of bronze vases are reproduced from the originals. That to the
right, with the tapering shape, is decorated with palms engraved in the ancient Chinese manner, and
is curiously enough only provided with one handle, which is decorated in a similar style.
The vase to the left has, on a flatter bowl, a most elegantly turned neck, whence project from
chimeras’ heads two graceful square handles.
The piece in the middle is in strong contrast, on account of its bold lines, which are continued
up to its brim, which is of a wide circular shape. This vase has neither handles nor decoration of
any sort.
Plate FE reproduces some old patterns of leather. The engraved book, whence these
specimens are taken, was published in 1844 by a collector of the name of Yokeda Yoshinobu. The
107
ARTISTIC JAPAN.
specimens were copied from authentic pieces in his collection, which are supposed to date from the
tenth to the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. These leathers have at all times been made for
belts for armour, and one is astonished to see how advanced was the art at a very early date.
It is not less interesting to note the sort of design which was used for these kind of accessories.
A certain geometrical regularity seems to preponderate, and lends itself to the representation
of legendary animals, the guardian genii of the brave. Such is the dragon with the serpent’s body
armed with scales emerging from a pattern of waves conventionalised, and bearing on its head,
furnished with powerful horns, the sacred pearl of the Buddhists. Such is also the traditional
“Dog of F6,” sometimes represented in an attitude of quiet, and sometimes gambolling on a bed
of peony leaves. All these are original in composition, but in a severe and bold style, thoroughly
in harmony with the use to which they were destined. The author of the work mentioned goes so
far as to state the names of the heroes who bore the armour from which these fragments came ;
and we remark among others, that the leather, decorated with chimeras and peony leaves, once
belonged to the famous Minamoto Yoshi-tsuné (twelfth century).
108
Contents of Number 9.
HOKUSAI’S “ MAN-GWA ” ( concluded | by Ary Renan . <
DESCRIPTION OF PLATES i<
SEPARATE PLATES.
Ajc. Kakémono — Sparrows and Bamboos, with Snow. By Tého-sui.
df. Two Pages of the “Man-gwa.” By Hokusai.
BE. Actor, in Female Costume. By Shun-yei.
HD. Three Bronze Vases.
Design for Printing on Stuffs.
DC. Industrial Design.
fe. Fragments of Old Leather.
CF. Types of Blind People. By Hokusai.
BI. Industrial Design. Peony Blossom.
IB. Pheasant. By Hokusai.
ERRATUM.
I am reminded of a mistake that I made in the first portion of the article, “ Hokusai’s Man-gwa." I was thinking of a Latin
epitaph of which I could not remember exactly the first few words. I attributed it to the tomb of Virgil, while in reality it was
written for that of Raphael. As a fact, it is in the Pantheon of Agrippa, in Rome, where there are engraved on the marble,
behind which are the remains of Raphael, these verses, which I freely translated : —
“ Pile hic est Raphael , timuit quo sospite vinci —
Rerum magna parens, et moriente mori."
The Text of No. X. will be by Mr. P. Burty (u The Sword”).
AJC
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ARTISTIC JAPAN.
g of the
o
Slio-ki, a Chinese Hero. After Hoku
proceeded to commit harakiri- — cuttin
stomach.
“ The other one, jealous of this advantage
that his enemy had taken of him, hastened to
serve on the table before the Emperor a dish
that he had in his hands, and returned to find
him who had made the quarrel dying of the
wound he had inflicted on himself ; having in-
quired of him if he still lived, he killed himself
in a like manner, saying to his comrade that he
would not have forestalled him had he not been at
the moment occupied about the service of his king,
but that he might die happy, for he had shown
that his sword was of equal worth.”
The story, retold more recently in the Forty-
seven Worthies of Assauo, confirms the tradition
of ferocious susceptibility in heroic times.
In our days — or, at least, before recent legislation — the sight of arms
invariably excited the Samurais.
In Satsuma — a province whose inhabitants are considered quarrelsome
and ill-humoured — if a man in public, no matter for what purpose, has
drawn his sword against any one, he is not allowed to return it to its
scabbard without having terminated the combat by a death ; according to the
law, he is obliged to fight until he has killed his adversary or fallen mortally
wounded himself. It is by virtue of these rigorous injunctions in times of
peace that the display of every kind of weapon is prohibited. The lance
and the dagger-blades must be in sheaths ; the barrels of guns are carefully
covered up, only to be removed in the case of an expedition into a hostile
country, or when escorting a criminal to the place of execution. So it was
that Sir Rutherford Alcock — who made it a custom to be accompanied at
Yédo by some lancers of his own nation — was requested by the Japanese
Government to hide the lance-blades of his escort, in order to avoid engendering
a supposition in the minds of the inhabitants of hostile sentiments.*
A young Japanese, a page in the house of a prince before the revolution of
1868, told me that sometimes a man in shabby and stained clothes appeared
at the gates of the castle, and begged for a hearing. He drew from his
* k. Lindau, 1864; Un Voyage autour du Japon.
ARTISTIC JAPAN.
belt his two swords, placing them in the hands of the pages, and was in a
short time allowed entrance. The younger people smiled at his strange
appearance, and then hastened to examine his swords, which were placed
upon a rack of lacquer decorated with armorial bearings. When the man
retired, he received back his swords, which were presented to him with
the greatest respect. Their exquisite quality bore witness to the fact that
they alone remained as relics of the former exalted position of their master,
the solitary witnesses of his fortune, spent often under a feigned ancestral
name.
A visitor of this sort could never have been an impostor. Stories are
indeed told of swords belonging to the nobles having been dishonestly acquired,
but they had invariably the effect of bringing ill-luck, and, besides, were
dangerous to possess, for they had a vindictive spirit in them.
It was in the endless and bloody feudal wars from the thirteenth to the
sixteenth centuries, between the Taira and the Minamoto families, that the
worship of arms came into Japan. The metal-workers in these times forged
armour, and suspended from strings attached to it pieces of paper as charms
against evil spirits, and they caused their finer works to be blessed by the priests
of Bishammon. The god Inari, who lives in the fir woods, and whose image for
this reason is often accompanied by that of a fox, on some occasions came
to help the forger in the making of his finest
swords.
These had names of their own, and were
endued with magical powers. As an example of
their names, “ the little raven ” may be taken.
One day a prince was pursued by his enemies ;
they had set fire to the grass on a hill on
which he had taken refuge, and he was sur-
rounded by a circle of flames ; but his magic
sword sprang from its scabbard, mowed down
the dry grass, and prevented the fire reaching
him.
But let us leave the enchanted king-
dom of legends to inquire whence and
by what ancient and mysterious methods
arms reached the Islands of Nippon. What
were the tribes that first of all landed > -i
Warrior in Ambush, after Hokusai.
ARTISTIC
there ? From what continents' were
they brought by the unconquerable
currents and the storm -winds ?
Whence come the rumours, trans-
mitted from mouth to ear, that they
were dark-skinned, with their teeth
stained black (married women to the
present day stain their teeth black) ?
Later on other strangers came,
and the first - comers
were driven up into
the mountains of Oho-
ye-yama. They then
became demons and
eaters of women, and
were armed with great
polished wooden clubs.*
The Stone Age, as it is
usually termed, is shown
by numerous examples.
In the second century
before the Christian era,
according to the Chinese
historian Ma-tuan-lin,
who published his Pro-
found Researches in
Ancient Monuments in
Nasuno-Yoiti : an episode of the Wars of the Taira. After Hokusai.
the thirteenth century, f
“the Japanese had only lances and bows of wood, with bamboo arrows,
which had sometimes bone tips.” Seibold, in his admirable study on Japan,
both ancient and modern, reproduces a fine suit of prehistoric armour. I
purchased in London an arm for throwing, or hand-to-hand fighting, in
green stone — such as a Japanese saw in the hands of Coreans in the quite
recent war with that country ; an axe, found while excavating for the railway,
in green serpentine, of the most choice colour, and of a fine polish, and
* 1 he Story of the Demon Shiuten Dôji ; by F. V. Dickins. Trübner, London.
t The Uen-hien-tong Kao was the subject of a paper read in 1871 at the Academy of Inscriptions, Paris, and
translatée! in two volumes which were published by M. Turettini of Geneva, in the Alsitmé-gusa.
114
ARTISTIC JAPAN.
with the perfect outline of Greek work, and with modifications at the angles
which make it an object of art ; and, lastly, some beautiful little arrow-heads
and fragments of knives, which are curved, and remind one of the flexibility
of a sword.
At the commencement of the seventh century of the Christian era,
Ma-tuan-lin states, on the authority of an ambassador sent to China from
Japan, that “they have swords, lances, and axes as arms.”
In this long interval, extending perhaps over a thousand years, who had
taught the Japanese to work in iron? For we know from the annals of the
Tairas that they had for a long period imported their iron from foreign countries.
At this time the Indian apostles, who spread the gospel of the Sakyamuni,
were crossing the seas. Dharma, for instance, is often represented sailing on
a branch of the tea-plant, or on a sword-blade floating on the waves. Coinci-
dently with the arrival of the Buddhist religion through India, China, and Corea,
a great advance occurred in the manufacture of arms. Among temple treasures
are shown ancient sword-blades, misshapen and oxydisecl with age — such as
are brandished by the four guardians of heaven who watch by the temples
and oversee the evil genii of the cardinal points.
The real Japanese arm though is the katana — a sword slightly curved,
with one edge only, and sufficiently solid for use with both hands.
It is probable that before the discovery of the iron mines found in the
eighth century, Japan got iron already worked from Corea— abundant in
minerals and more advanced in civilisation.
We must here remark upon an unusual circumstance in the history of the
industrial arts, and that is, that the names of the makers who invented or
carried to perfection the forging and tempering of sword-blades are known — for
instance, Masa-nobu and Sané-nori in the tenth
century. The quality of their work is of the finest,
and of an unequalled resistance. The Kamis — or
spirits of their ancestors — came to their aid when
they hammered the pieces made of old nails, put
them in the furnace, annealed and tempered them, and, lastly,
they sharpened and polished them, and added the signature.*
The Japanese were, originally, careful not to divulge
* M. Montefiore possesses in his wonderful collection of arms a blade signed “ Sane-Mori.”
The mounting, as also that of the little sword, is signed “ Itijo-Gotô” (about 1840). These blades
are usually provided with a groove for the escape of the blood. It was necessary to clean them
at once after an action, as blood causes indelible stains if not at once removed.
>15
ARTISTIC JAPAN.
their secrets to other nations. Kaempfer tells (a.d. 1755) how,,
in the year 1676, a Daikwan or administrator of the imperial
estate of Nagasaki, named Sié-Tsugu-Feso, was convicted for
having collected together some swords which he proposed to^
secretly send into Corea. This was enough to cause his
death and that of his whole family, which was a large one.
He was condemned to crucifixion, and his house was razed
to the ground. The Jesuits sent some swords to Louis XIV.,
which were preserved for a long time in the Petit-Bourbon.
Rembrandt had some which the captain of a Dutch ship had
given him in exchange.
The Dutch, in their first reports addressed to the directors
of the East India Company, drew attention to the immense
prices at which the Japanese princes valued their arms. “They
have” (. Memorable Embassades, Amsterdam, 1660) “the same
madness for the jars for tsia (tea) and for kakémonos as they
have for their swords and daggers, which are often priced
at four or five thousand florins when they are the forging of
some celebrated workman.” With regard to the fortune of a
Mikado, who died in 163:, Melchisedech Thévenot gives us
the words that he uttered on his deathbed : “ I have always
held in great reverence these things as much as my ancestors ;
and you should make a rule to do so for this reason.” Among
other precious articles, he gave to his son a sword curved in a
semi-circle with the signature “ Dzouky Massamé;” another
signed “Samoys;” another smaller, which bears the name
“ Bungo-Dyssero ; ” another, “ Massamé.” He left to his second
brother a sword signed “ Ozu-Massamé ; ” to his third brother
(both princes had provinces of their own) “ a sword, some
pictures (kakémonos), and a little vessel for preparing tsia (tea)
in, called mara-issiba.”
At the close of the seventeenth century, the taste for luxury
and adornment had degenerated to such an extent with the
Samurais, that they ornamented and painted themselves like
women. A certain Yodora Fatsyro, son of one of the rich
merchants in Osaka, ruined himself by wanton extravagance
and was exiled, and the Government confiscated his goods.
I l6
ARTISTIC JAPAN.
Yassaghi-ha
(Willow Leaf).
Arrow-head.
Yassaghi-ha
(Willow Leaf).
Yassaghi-ha
(Willow Leaf).
Arrow-heads.
Wata-kousi
(“ Tear-flesh *').
In the list of his effects there
are mentioned a hundred and
seventy swords of all lengths.
It was the height of fashion
to match the pair of swords
with the dress worn. The
excellence of the swords and
the art displayed in their
mounting were mentioned by
the Jesuits in their Leiters ,
which were abundantly cir-
culated over Europe. To the
reverend Fathers is due the
praise of having first admired them. They had sent to Saint-Siège an
embassade, which leaving Nagasaki in 1582, arrived at Lisbon in August 1584.
These neophytes, belonging, to the greatest families, were the object of the
greatest curiosity, and were treated magnificently. Philip II. received them at
Madrid with a familiarity of which he was not lavish. He addressed them as
“his cousins ; ” he sent them his carriages to visit the Escurial — then recently
finished — showed them his treasures, his stables, and his armourv. During
- o
one of these receptions, the King, to the great surprise of the Court, stood
for a whole hour asking a hundred questions, examining their silk robes,
their girdles, which he called “ scarves,” and stopping to look at their
swords. What a scene for a painter of historical subjects ! The draperies
for ceremonial use, with their broad folds and great designs, the King always
in black, always grave, touching the rich materials, or remarking upon the
brightness of some sheath inlaid with mother-of-pearl.*
Three suits of armour, which formed a part of certain presents which
were sent to the King of Spain, are preserved in the Royal Armoury at
Madrid; but they were much damaged by the great fire in 1885. A good
idea, however, of their value and interest can be obtained from the etching
by Mr. H. Guérard, in Mons. Gonse’s L'Art Japonais. They came from
the studio of the Miochins, a family noted during several centuries for their
manufacture of weapons of war. Dr. Mène has some magnificent specimens
of their work in his collection of armour and helmets ; these will be exhibited
* The Quinet Museum contains a lacquer and gilt screen, upon which is portrayed the Jesuits and, probably,
Francis Xavier disembarking at Japan.
'i 7
ARTISTIC JAPAN.
The Kami Inari aids Masa Mutia in forging a blade. Mata Muna has put on his robes of ceremony; he has
at the coming Exposition Universelle. In the Spanish suits the front of the
breastplate is covered with divinities, dragons, monsters, and kindred subjects
in high relief. The ornamentation of some of the helmets shows European
influence. It is well known that Portugal, at the close of the sixteenth
century, exported to Japan a quantity of pieces which the introduction
of gunpowder had rendered out of date. The gauntlets and armlets,
on the other hand, seem by their inlaying and damascening, to have been
affected by the influence of the Persians, a race which excelled in that
branch of the arts. It is known that relationship existed between
the two countries through the intermediary of ambassadors, who were
established in Corea before the fifteenth century. We should very much like
to know to whom the Japanese are indebted for the idea, which seems to
Europeans more comical than terrible, of the masks with white moustaches,
prominent noses, and wrinkled cheeks. Was it China ?
But to return to our subject of swords. We know from the list drawn
up, when an execution was levied on his studio, that Rembrandt possessed
m t
ARTISTIC JAPAN.
Japanese arms. Probably some captain of a Dutch trader had brought
them to him. Mazarin, the omniverous collector, also had some. Louis XIV.
amassed some, which he placed in his “ Cabinet d’Armes ” at the Petit-Bourbon,
and which are still to be seen in the Artillery Museum. But really, with
very rare exceptions, Japanese arms never, until quite lately, found their way
into Europe. Travellers only noted their existence; the Renaissance, so
fond of everything which appertained to a man of war, was unaware of their
existence.
Every account mentions the wondrous feats accomplished by swords
when held in the hands of experts : when blades were sold, it was usual to
divide a piece of coin or even a common sword before the purchaser, without
notch or hurt to the weapon. These weapons had a terrible sharpness : I
have myself seen a blade on which was carved an inscription that it had
severed the heads of two corpses at a blow — a performance enacted in the
presence of the illustrious Prince Iyéyasu.
This notwithstanding, these blades, so well whetted, so strong when
el.nd suspended strips of pap.r from a cord, offering votive gifts to the gods. After Hokusa.— Sic /age it>
ARTISTIC JAPAN.
adroitly handled are brittle, and will not bend in the
manner Europeans are accustomed to.
Colonel le Clerc, who has collected at the Museum
of Arms a most interesting series of the war costumes
of every race and age, has kindly assisted me in my
experiments by sending to the Small Arms Factory at
Chatellerault some of the blades which the Government
received at the time of the French Exhibition of 1867 from the Prince
of Satsuma. The following are some extracts from his valuable official
report : —
After Hokusai.
“ I have submitted the blades to the examination of the master workmen and
superintendents 'of the Small Arms Factory, who you know are most experienced in all
questions of forging, tempering, and sharpening. They have brought to bear upon
them such searching tests that they must furnish us with useful information as to
the method of manufacture.
“ The blade presents two noteworthy peculiarities : the tongue is large and strong,
thus allowing the hilt, as well as the numerous mountings, to be stoutly fastened ; the
blade has a very thin section, both lengthways and sideways, which very much facilitates
the different stages of fabrication, as to which we can award nothing but praise to
Japanese artificers, for they accomplish with very rude appliances wonders which are
beyond the possibilities of our very best workmen, assisted as these are with all the
resources of perfected machinery.
“ In order to examine the structure of the metal, a blade has been broken in
three different places. It has thus been easily ascertained, by means of a magnifying
glass, that the core is formed of a sheet of very wiry iron, covered on its two principal
faces and edge with a coating of steel ; the grain of the steel upon the faces is less
fine and close than that of the edge, which circumstance may probably arise from the
method of tempering. One may assume that the forger covered a mould of iron on
three of its faces with a coating of steel, and that he then managed to attach the surfaces
which were in contact by means of a regular and methodical hammering, which produced
a kind of welding. The thicknesses of the two metals is most
regular, the welding is perfect, 'without any appearance of cracks or
indentations. This operation must present enormous difficulties
to be successfully and perfectly surmounted, as they are : often our
forgers could hardly believe their eyes. The raw material, too, must
be of the best quality, to judge from its grain and physical properties.
“The tempering ought not to present many difficulties, when one considers
the thickness of the blade and its lack of rigidity. As it is, the maker is
content with tempering the edge only, to a width of about a quarter of an
inch : this is clearly visible after an examination of the grain, and by the
cracks which show upon the surface when the blade is sharply bent.
“ The sharpeners are even cleverer, if it were possible, than the forgers :
the shape and size of the blades is kept with the greatest exactitude, all the
Lance Exercise, after Hokusai
ARTISTIC JAPAN.
ridges have a perfect regularity ; the edge is wonderful, and the polish
very fine.
“To sum up, the materials are excellent, and the workmen who have
worked them have been real artists. Such is the opinion of our most
capable experts. We can learn nothing that is profitable for our own
armament from the blades which you have sent to us ; but if you could
induce the Japanese workmen to come and give us their assistance as
forgers and sharpeners, I believe that they could instruct our master-
workmen in many ways.”
Here I must stop for the present ; another day I will
take up the subject again as regards, the small-sword.
The great Iyéyasu spoke as follows concerning this noble
weapon : “ For a Samurai to forget to wear his sword is an
unpardonable act ; the sword in the girdle is the soul of the Samurai.” This
aptly sums up the whole matter.
PHILIPPE BURTY.
Bow Exercise, after Hokusai.
A Sword Swallower, by Hokusai.
121
DESCRIPTION OF PLATES.
Plate AAEI is the reproduction of a kakémono by Ganku (1750-1838), who was the
founder at Kyoto of a rival school to that of Shijo, established shortly before his time by
Maruyama Okio in the same town. Following the example of the last-mentioned artist,
Ganku professed the doctrines called “ realistic,” which were destined to drive out the
academic method in the representation of living beings. But with this difference, that
he did not aim at attributing to his own epoch the exclusive merit of this innovation.
Going back in the history of Art, as far as the Chinese masters of the thirteenth and
fourteenth centuries, he proclaimed that similar lessons might be learnt from the work ot
early masters. It is thence that he drew the highest of his inspirations, and it is their
influence which is so evident in the celebrated pictures of tigers, which have gone so far to
perpetuate the renown of Ganku. One can judge by the present kakémono of the perfection
the artist was master of in rendering the strength and ferocity of the animal.
Plate AJE, by way of contrast, gives us a pleasant specimen of the Shijo School to
which we have just alluded. These two pages of birds proceed directly from Okio. The
bamboos and chrysanthemums slightly bend beneath the weight of the tiny creatures which
have alighted on them. Nothing is more beautifully represented than the effort of the bird,
fluttering its wings and endeavouring to keep its balance on the flowering branch. The plate is
taken from an engraved album, of which the reproduction is in every way equal to the designs.
The stroke of the brush charged with Indian-ink, which in one strong line has traced
the foliage of the bamboo, is reproduced on wood with a truthfulness that deceives the
eye ; and, in the other drawing, the freeness of style which constitutes its chief merit is
not less admirably rendered. The book is without the signature of its author ; but these
sketches seem to us worthy to be placed among the masterpieces in their style.
With plate ABB we find ourselves again in the midst of a lower form of Art, whence we
have already borrowed specimens. This time we renew our acquaintance with one of the
last artists of note known in the era of decadence, Kuniyoshi (1800-1861), originally a pupil
of Toyokuni, but nevertheless largely inspired by the work 01 Hokusai, as the engraving
before us shows, as the reproduction of one of the best compositions of the artist. It
would be almost impossible to go further into the popular style. The three men in the
plate, lost in the pleasures of angling, their characteristic type and familiar attitudes,
which could not be seen in any other employment, the simplicity of costume — all combine to
give this scene a feeling of absolute realism, and, although there is no poetry in the composi-
122
ARTISTIC JAPAN.
tion, no one can say that the vulgarity of the subject destroys the striking impression of the
picture. The line of the horizon is immensely developed and bathed in the rosy rays of a sun
that is nearly set : a few white sails alone are seen in the distance on the surface of the
water. A spot of land, already made dusk by the rising shadows, seems to taper off
gradually, while a few boats at anchor make a striking effect on the opposite shore. Nearer to
us there comes a boat, the occupants of which have carefully hidden themselves from the gaze of
inquisitive strangers beneath the shade of an enormous umbrella, leaving us to guess their
occupation ; while quite in the foreground is a great eddy in the water round the pointed
rocks on which are perched with miraculous balancing-powers our persevering anglers. All is
enveloped in the limpid atmosphere of a calm spring evening. The scene represents the
mouth of the Sumida-gawa, in the bay of Yedo, near a place called Tépozu.
Plate ABG, two designs taken from the Umpitsu Sogiva, by Tachibana Morikuni (1670-
1748), a work in three volumes, published after the artist’s death in 1749. The title, which
may be translated as The Book of Quick Sketches , justifies itself by the examples we have
taken from it. They represent exactly the manner of the master, who by the simple
dexterity and certainty in his management of the brush, arrived at giving the desired form to
everything he jotted down on paper, in simple Indian-ink outlines. Each of the rough
strokes thrown here and there pell-mell upon the paper, every one of the jagged and broken
lines, form a being or a thing constantly full of life — we were almost going to say of soul.
The contrast of the white space between the outlines constitutes an effect of light which
represents modelling in a surprising manner. Would it be possible to imagine a more supple
effect than that given by the body of this squirrel, arrived at by the ingenious use of the
brush ? The artist was supposed to be a wonderful caligraphist, and we can easily give credit
to the notion.
Morikuni is worthy of an important place in Art. Amongst a great many works
illustrated by him, he created a highly valuable series of models for artisans, by whom
they have for more than a century been constantly used and applied in chasing and lacquer
making.
Plate ABF is a motive of decoration for stuffs or paper of a most elegant description.
Plate AJJ is the reproduction of a small piece of a robe of brocaded silk of seventeenth
century make. On a checker pattern of various colours a flight of white cranes is displayed,
which break, what might be monotonous in the geometrical ground. The design is of the
most imposing style, the colours are harmonious, and the whole effect is that of the grandeur
which characterised the lordly draperies of feudal times.
Plate ACC represents a bronze flower vase of eighteenth century workmanship, with a
granulated surface of green patina. It rests on three little lobsters, which, in spite of their
123
ARTISTIC JAPAN.
apparent fragility, give a solid substructure for the body of the vase, and form with it a
well-balanced whole. It has been all made in one mould, and once more shows us the
technical ability at which the Japanese had arrived in this sort of production. How natural
are the little beasts which curve and bend, forming the stand of the vase, and how much
more picturesque they are than the three commonplace feet which so often serve us for
supports in our objects of the same nature !
Plate ABJ, a hanging vase in the shape of the pulley and the buckets of a well. It
is in the pottery made at Awata, a suburb of Kyoto, and dates from the commencement
of the eighteenth century. The chains of metal, necessarily shortened to carry out the
reproduction, somewhat mar the graceful effect of the object. They are easily unwound
from off the pulley, and so allow the little buckets, in which the flowers are placed, to
have their respective positions arranged according to taste. The sort of pottery of which
this piece is made was first manufactured by Ninsei, a celebrated potter who lived about
1700, and since then it has become almost customary to call all the specimens of this fabric
“Ninsei.” It is this sort which was formerly known in France as “ vieux truite on account of the
minute crackling which is seen in the glaze, which is of a fawn colour more or less decided. In
the decoration blue and green enamels predominate, and they are frequently enhanced by the
addition of burnished gold ornaments The first kiln at Awata owes its existence to Ninsei,
as do a certain number of others established by the master-potter in different parts of the
suburbs of the ancient capital. Before Ninsei, pottery decorated by means of verifiable
enamels was unknown ; it was he who first applied this decorative principle, which up to his
time had been used only for the ornamentation of Japanese porcelain.
Plate ACJ is a group in porcelain. In spite of its considerable size (in the plate the
reduction is to a half), it is what we may call an ornament for a cabinet — that is to say, that
it has no practical use. The Japanese design a piece like this under the name of Okimono,
literally, object to be placed , which, in this acceptation of the word, means an ornament. The
specimen is in the porcelain of Hizen, probably manufactured towards the end of the last
century in a kiln belonging to the prince of Nabeshima. What gives it its character is the
soberness of the colouring and the absence of gold decoration. The subject, a very favourite
one in Japan, represents some pigeons perching on tiles broken from the roof of a temple :
it is round the temples that pigeons flock in hundreds. In the object represented in
the plate the tiles become blue in the burning ; one of the birds is pure white, while the
other has delicately tinted plumage. The kilns of Nabeshima were not used for commercial
purposes, and their productions were reserved for the royal palaces or the Shogun’s Court.
124
Contents of Number io.
JAPANESE SWORDS — The Katana, or Large-sized Sword, by Philippe
Burty . . . . . . . . . . . . .mi
DESCRIPTION OF PLATES '... 122
SEPARATE PLATES.
ABJ. Hanging Vase in Awata Pottery.
ABG. Two Sketches. Squirrel and Crane. By Tachibana Morikuni.
A JE. Birds and Plants. School of Shijo.
ACJ. Pigeons on Broken Til es. Hi/.cn Porcelain.
ABB. Men Fishing. By Kuniyoshi.
A AH. Tiger. Kakémono. By Ganku. (Double Plate).
ABF. Industrial Design. Butterflies and Flowers.
AJJ. Portion of Brocaded Silk Robe. Seventeenth century.
ACC. Bronze Vase. Eighteenth century.
The Article for No. XI. will be “ The Small Sword" by M. Philippe Burly.
ABJ
ABG
A CJ
L'Jie Cor cor a T) G-nllp.ry of Art,
War hi nf J). C.
ABB
AAH
mmmmi
✓<1V .
r m
AJJ •
'-nxv. imp p.\n <::i
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ARTISTIC JAPAN.
family, taking rank only next to the Mikado, but which, since the rising
into power of the Tokugawas, whence came the Shoguns, had fallen in its
fortunes. He was intended for the diplomatic service, and was thoroughly in
favour of the European reforms which the younger generation demands. He
evinced not the slightest enthusiasm for my sword. Besides, he assured me
that the “attendants of the ministers carried weapons exactly similar.” One
day in October, when I should have expected him to be engaged with a
sparrow-hawk that he was training to catch small birds in the fields in the
same way as a falcon, he made his appearance holding a long parcel wrapped
in white silk — containing two swords rolled up in antique brocade* — the beauty
of which I had often heard of from his friends. He said to me — his usual
politeness having something more of gravity than usual — “ that his father had
chosen these arms himself before his departure for Europe ; that they would
be in much safer custody in my keeping, than in a bachelor’s chambers. That
the Katana was in perfect preservation, but the Wakizashi — the small sword
— had become slightly blunt.”
He proceeded to explain to me the rules of fencing, which are entirely
different to those of our masters of arms. Then every portion in detail he
named, commenting, if necessary removing, weighing in his hand, and care-
fully replacing them. I was struck, as may be imagined, by so much friendli-
ness and politeness. The friends of Prince S told me later, when
congratulating me on my good fortune, that on one lively occasion they had,
when opening some champagne bottles, cut the wire with the end of the
Wakizashi.
I will commence my description of these swords by the Katana, but I
shall not tie myself down always to giving the technical terms. The sheath
{say a), in light wood, is lacquered in black. With the handle — which is of
shark’s skin (shark’s palate) — it measures rather more than thirty-eight inches.
The strongly-made cord ( tusaki ) of black silk, passed through the suspending
ring lower down than the guard, formerly held the broad and flowing folds
of ceremonial robes. The end ( kashira ) of shibuichi (an alloy of copper, the
tone of which can only be compared to
the light and shadow thrown by the
moon) and the oblong ring ( fuchi ) above
the guard ( tsiLba ) have, as a decorative
* The pair of swords which are worn in the belt, and which
constitute the distinctive mark of nobles and soldiers, are called
Daisho .
128
Experts examining Swords, from an Encyclopaedia of the Seventeenth Century.
ARTISTIC JAPAN.
pattern, petals from cherry blossoms in gold
carried down the meanderings of a stream.
The guard ( tsubd ) is of iron decorated on
each side with gourds hanging, with their
buds, their flowers, and their tendrils — it
is signed : “ nara,” saku {saht is the
Japanese equivalent of the Latin fecii).
A channel is cut along the whole length
of the blade on each side, which has the effect of reducing the weight without
lessening the strength. It has a grey tone without high polish, but at the
same time bright and gleaming as a block of ice straight from a glacier.
The edge is of a duller tone, and does not give back the bright reflections
of the light, and the sharpening is carried to such absolute perfection that
it proves the possibility of the legend, which tells of a sheet of paper being
cut through as it came across a blade held in a stream of running water.
The forger has inscribed his name on the part to be slipped into the handle,
which has never been steeled, and which is pierced by a hole, through which
a peg of bamboo is driven at right angles. His name was Kane-Tsugu, and
he lived in the sixteenth century. Arms which are distinguished by the title
“ ancient ” date up to the end of this century, since when collectors style
them “ modern.” The polish, which has been remarked upon with the
greatest admiration by the chiefs of the Châtellerault factories, must have
been arrived at by means of patient and methodical rubbings with cloths
soaked in the sediment of grindstone troughs, whereby the blade was
gradually sharpened. It is evident that the making of selected weapons was
trusted by the nobles only to experts. In our climate all that is necessary to
keep it bright is to rub it from time to time with soft Japanese paper, and
never allow it to be oiled, or be touched by people who have not dry hands.
Occasionally these blades have
Sanscrit characters inscribed in the
hollow channel. It is no easy matter
to translate them ; they are abbrevia-
tions of sacred signs, the names of
the five great Arias, or perhaps of
star constellations.
The small sword, which was with
the Katana and its inseparable com-
129
I
ARTISTIC JAPAN.
panion in the life of a Japanese, gives rise to more varied con-
sideration.* .
The mounting is signed, “ Goto Mitsu MasaT The Gotos com-
stitute a family of makers of sword mounts (the forgers themselves
in ancient times were sometimes also mounters), who have come
down in regular succession from the middle of the fifteenth century
to our day. Without a single exception they have worked for the
Shoguns alone. Some of them have attached the name “ Goto ” to their
finest pieces of chiselling, modelling, and alloying of metals, but not one of
these could have been mistaken as coming from any other studio, so clever
and ingenious are they all. The “ Gotos ” worked in gold and shakudo in the
same manner as the ancient masters in iron, brass, embossed work, and trans-
lucent enamels. f The series of signatures of the members of the head and
collateral branches of the family, with representations of imitations and
forgeries, formed two volumes even before the end of the eighteenth century,
issued for the use of collectors, who were passionate collectors of their work.ij;
Goto Mitsu Masa has put on the Kashira, or “pommel,” a branch of a
cherry tree half hidden by a notice, on which is written a warning to passers-
by : — “ He who cuts a branch from this tree shall have his own fingers cut off.”
Two gold ornaments ( 'menukis ) bound by and partly under a black
silk cord, which is wound round the shark’s-palate skin covered handle,
and which were in the first instance meant to prevent the hand slipping,
represent the merciless chase of a crane
by a falcon. Close to the end a kind of
hook in silver, is intended to secure the
sword in the girdle ( akisashi ). The
guard, which projects but little, is oval
and of iron with incrusted decorations,
pierced with holes for the Kodzuka and
the Kogai to pass through. These
guards, of which the decorative variety
is almost endless, give the strongest
* See an article in the Ethnographical Review, Berlin, 1882,
by M. G. Müller-Beeck.
t A volume upon “The Sword” is in preparation by
Mr. Marcus Huish ; it will be published by the Fine Art
Society.
.. , X. MW index to; tlje Lectures on Japanese Art Work,
by Mr. Ernest Hart ; delivered before the Society for the En-
couragement of Arts, Manufactures, And Commerce-, May, 1886.
130
Workshop of a Sword Forger, from an ancient Encyclopaedia.
ARTISTIC JAPAN.
A young Samurai trying on Armour, after Hokusai.
proof of the’genius of people.
The most astonishing, to my
' mind, are those of hammered
- or cut iron : but we must
- - c . ■ t * -
not allow ourselves to linger
on this subject, it is worthy
of a particular study to itself.
Moreover, they have been
brought into our modern com-
merce by the importations of
our great merchants. Every
Samurai wearing by right two swords, had to have as a change several
sets of guards, each more or less valuable, more or less simple. Hence
the large quantities that have been sent over, although at the same time
they have nearly all disappeared in the torrent of circulation. Even the
most simple appeal to an artistic taste, covered as they are either with
bas-reliefs, or cut through with the greatest ingenuity ; they form an infinite
repertory of historic legends, or motives from nature, interpreted without
exception with taste and spirit.
On the left side of the scabbard there is slipped into a groove a knife
(the kodzukd) of which the blade is hidden, but the handle projects. On a
ground of shakudo ( nanako ) with a hammered surface, having the appearance,
as it were, of a coating of caviare, the artist has continued the decorative
motive which is seen on the other parts of the sword, even on the least im-
portant portions, such as the rings (the fuchis) — a crescent moon emerging
from vapours in gold and silver, blossoms of flowers, and snow crystals.
The light snows of spring-time, buds bursting into flowers, and the silence
of the moonlight, are the triple theme of the Chinese poets ; here we have
them with the added grace of the Japanese artist.
The blade, often of flexible steel, is sharpened two-thirds of its length ;
on it we have only the maker’s name — Nobu-Yoshi, at Myako. Occasion-
ally these blades, decorated with transversal lines on the reverse
side, have written on them the name of one of their early owners,
buddhistic prayers, short poems, or even series of landscapes such
as the “ Eight Views of the Lake of Biwa.” These marks of
the graver on a material most difficult to work on, are of a
fineness and fidelity which are surprising to a degree.
* _
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ARTISTIC JAPAN.
The kodzuka, I have heard said, was pushed into the fringed hair
which the warriors — they have for ages worn flowing locks — fastened up
before going into action. At the time of the American expedition under
Commodore Perry, 1852-54, in the islands of Liou-Kiou (which were perhaps
the cradle of the conquering Japanese), the chiefs still carried short arrows
through the knot formed by their twisted hair. In fact, the soldiers who
had wide lacquered helmets, wore them somewhat in the same position that
ladies wear Rubens hats to-day.
The kodzuka, besides being used to fasten the heads cut off in battle
to the saddle bow, was also a missile weapon whose special practice has
been represented by Hokusai in his Man-gwa , and which appears very similar
Visitors to the Temple of Itzuku Shima examining celebrated Swords from the Treasure House. After Hokusai.
ARTISTIC JAPAN.
one of the two grasps his shield, while his comrade
cuts his throat by throwing his kodzuka at it. At
all times it serves as a paper cutter — Japanese paper,
being made of vegetable tissue, cannot be torn. The
kogai (head-pin) balances the kodzuka on the opposite
side of the guard. It is formed of a
long blunt blade. The oldest that I
have collected are of iron sharpened on
two sides. It helped to mend the rents
in the leather belts that
have already been men-
tioned.*
At a later date, when
horses had been imported
from Corea, the kogai
served for grooming their
hoofs, horses never being
shod in Oriental countries.
Also, at times it was
divided into two longi-
tudinal parts, and these
two narrow instruments
could be employed for
eating rice. One hears it
affirmed that one of these
“ head-pins ” was stuck in
the scalp of an enemy by his victor in action, and that the “ proofs ” were
collected when the engagement was completed victoriously. \
The mounting of the most ancient swords has but rarely been preserved,
as it is the custom to change them every twenty-five years. It is difficult
to form any definite opinion on the subject. Nevertheless, I have in my
collection a sword with mounts in cut iron, which is from the buddhistic work-
shops at Nara, about the tenth century; and it has a typical kogai , as; also,
has a sword from the arsenal of the Prince of Kaga, with a blade dated 1190.
The blade of the small sword, f whose description I shall now briefly
An Attack, after Hokusai.
* See a Separate Plate in the last number of Artistic Japan.
+ I prefer to use the words “ small sword,” as the Japanese names are varied.
ARTISTIC JAPAN.
give, measures rather more than eleven inches. It is of a somewhat
bluer hue than that of the Katana, with a solidity which one can only
compare to natural crystal. It bears the signature, “ Haru-Mitsu,
inhabitant of the province of Bizen , of the village of Osa-Fwie,”
and the date 1522. The “clouds” are the traces of the steeling,
and they reveal the methods of some special time, province, and
workshop. This complicated science should be studied by ex-
perts.
The Katana was the fighting weapon. The Katana watched
ovèr the life of its owner. The Wakizashi, on the other hand, was
the guardian of his honour, in the past, the present, and the future.
In the home it occupied a place designed for it in a special room,
on a sword-stand placed in a niche. It consummated the death of
its conquered or insulted master, unable to do justice himself, or
condemned by law, but with the privilege of not submitting himself
to the supreme terror of the executioner. It was the special weapon used
for Hara-kiri or seppu. Originally, vanquished warriors would not surrender
themselves to their conquerors.
The Hara-kiri was not officially recognised till the time of the Taiko-
Sama. In a chosen part of the house the family and friends gathered
together, and in presence of an officer appointed by the prince, the doomed
one was clothed with a white robe open from the chest to the waist ; the judg-
ment was listened to ; the witnesses were addressed, and the last injunctions
given. The small sword was taken, lying on a small tray raised on feet. It
was covered in white silk as far as the edge. The man inflicted on himself a
gash upwards, and at the moment that the features contracted themselves, at
the moment that mental power ceased, a friend, standing behind, cut off his
head. Count C. de Montblanc in/ 1865 thus
concisely described it— I quote his own
words : “In Japan, the man who deserves
death, and dies by his own hand, is preserved
from the shame entailed by his. crime. In
bravely accepting the responsibility of his
act, he, so to speak, destroys the guilt.
He bequeaths to his family the memory
, of his courage and dignity ; it weighs in the
balance with the recollection of his crime,
134
Episode in a Siege, after
Hokusai.
Sharpening a Blade, from an Encyclopaedia of the Eighteenth Century.
ARTISTIC JAPAN.
and thus the moral position which was his right, and the respect in which he
had been held are preserved.”
“ Such is the moral signification of the Japanese small sword whose use
might be an honour to the most advanced civilization.”
PHILIPPE BURTY.
's5
DESCRIPTION OF PLATES.
Plate AEE. The Sword for ceremonial use and for combat, that is here reproduced with all
its accessories and separate parts, has a highly decorative effect. It is a typical specimen of the
arms which the Daimios used in their courtly functions and their every-day life. It was called the
TII-TAGAMA. Siebold has given a drawing of one, but does not name it. The blade is one-third
of an inch thick, is lightened by a deep channel on each side, is one inch and an eighth wide, and
fifteen and one-third inches long from the guard, which is of shibuichi. It comes from the forges
of Bizen, probably before the seventeenth century, but it is unsigned. The absence of any signa-
ture on exceptional pieces was the special affectation of certain forgers. Their work was to be
recognised, however, by the various cloudings upon the surface. In the specimen before us, there
is no “ clouding.” The mounts are also without signature, and are entirely of silver. They
must have come from an artist living on the estate of some daimio, or some master who
supported him. They appear to date from the middle of the eighteenth century. By the
simplicity of effect, and the breadth of workmanship, they remind us of goldsmiths’ work
of the time of Louis XV. The mon or crest of the first possessors has been repeated in
twenty places on it, ingeniously chosen so as to prevent monotony. This armorial bearing is a
slight modification of that of the powerful family of the Arimas. The handle of the kodzuka ,
the kogai divided into two, the tip of the sheath pierced for a cord with double tassels, the
kasJiira , the upper part also pierced by a heart-shaped hole, the reason for which I am ignorant,
and a sort of hook which prevents it falling through the girdle when a deep bow is made,
are also all ornamented with it. The sheath is of lac, the colour of a raspberry, lightly sprinkled
with gold in flakes. The colour blends happily with the metal, and the beauty of the handle
adds greatly to the general effect of perfection. Ph. B.
Plate ACF is the reproduction of a painting by Ogata Korin (1660-1716). Korin is, beyond
all other Japanese artists, the one whose work is marked by the greatest originality. It is a rare
thing to find growing in the domains of art, a newly-created style, not the result of logical and
ordinary development, but the effect of successive methods. If one is inclined to investigate in
this direction with regard to Korin, one will find oneself entirely on the wrong tack. His art came
from no outside source, he created it in its entirety. According to the rule jast laid down,
one might truly consider him as a pupil in painting of Sotatsu, an adept of the Tosa school,
for from this master were derived the effects in mother-of-pearl, which characterise Korin’s work.
But here is the limit of any visible signs of likeness, for, from the fulness of his compositions, and
the brightness of his tones, from the extreme originality of his interpretation of nature, which he
sees sometimes from some entirely novel point, even representing it with a conventionality,
intentional and strangely striking, it would be difficult to discover any forerunner of his work.
In many cases the apparently extravagant excess of his designs is carried to such an extent as to
disenchant his most passionate admirers. But in considering the brilliant execution and master-
hand shown in such passages, and by reference in another direction to works where the brush of
the artist is more serious, and has complied with a wish for perfect correctness, it is impossible
to doubt that there is the profoundest calculation in the eccentricities which have at first surprised
the eye, and whose object one now feels obliged to inquire into. This is not a difficult
task. From the first occasion when the name of Korin appeared in these pages (No. 5),
we have said, that according to him, art should not retreat before certain exaggerations, when
it is their object to show such and such a peculiarity of a subject. To this explanation a second
must be added, to determine exactly the genius of the artist. If it is true, as Mr. Gonse in the
number mentioned so decidedly affirmed, that the feeling for decoration is the very essence
of the Japanese aestheticism, in order to understand its necessary and fundamental condition,
it becomes natural that every artist must do some decorative work. Not one of them could — -
or wished to — avoid it, without running the risk of belieing the inborn temperament of his
race. Korin alone, perhaps, submits to the rule in a manner entirely unconscious. The decorative
136
ARTISTIC JAPAN.
idea flashes out in his work very visibly, it haunts it without ceasing, and comes before any
other consideration. The most celebrated works of the artist, his larger compositions, of which
one alone serves to cover the entire surface of a whole screen, are simply a sort of defiance
flung at all exact analysing. But the effect of the colour becomes dazzling, and the power
of the drawing is wonderful. More modest in style is the page that we have reproduced. It
is taken from a set for a screen with eight leaves. In these paintings of flowers the effect,
although it is intense and original, is obtained without sacrifice to truth. To the decorative
idea, an attentive observation of nature, freely interpreted, is added knowledge of rendering,
and a complete knowledge of form.
Plate ACG. Two birds (the curucca or garden warbler of Japan), among rose trees by
moonlight ; by Sugakudo, taken from an album of forty-eight engraved plates of birds and
flowers, which appeared in the middle of the present century. Was Sugakudo, when he
designed these pages, following the example of Korin, moved by a preconceived desire to
fill them with the intensely decorative feeling which makes them stand alone in their beauty?
We cannot know, but it is certain that, consciously or not, he succeeded in producing an
extremely beautiful series, as well from this special point of view, as with regard to the truly
lifelike representation of a collection of birds of various kinds, of which each is given in its
natural surroundings. From every plate in the series, our decorative artists might find
some thoroughly interesting studies, and we propose to make more than one reproduction for
their benefit.
The Plate FJ, after Harunobu, will be recognised as the fellow to an engraving reproduced
in No. 3, accompanied by explanations with regard both to the work and the artist ; to this
we would refer our readers.
Plates AD and ADD. Our series of industrial models continued. Plate AD represents a
quantity of leaves from the maple, with those of the ghinko biloba , but the latter treated in a
fanciful calligraphic manner. Plate ADD shows branches of bamboo mixed with full-blown
chrysanthemum blossoms.
Plate ACA. Six sword guards in iron, each executed by a different hand, and for this
reason calculated to lend themselves well to study and examination, inasmuch as a similar
subject is treated in different manners. Within the border of one of the guards are a shrimp
and a fish of the family of the cyprinoides, lying on rose leaves. Close by is a lobster, bent
so as to form by itself an arabesque ; and, in another, there is a carp fighting with the
foaming waves. At the foot of the page a silurus, with its smooth skin, finds itself arranged
with a gourd. The series is completed with a guard formed of a dragon with curving body, as
artistic as it is lithe, and lastly with a sixth guard, decorated — truly no subject is despised by the
Japanese, even as a decoration for his deeply venerated sword — -with a common turnip, with boldly
treated foliage.
Of these six swords, four are signed : that with the dragon bears the name of Itshiriu-Uki ;
that with the lobster was made by Nori-Hidé ; Hana-Fussa forged the polished iron silurus, and
the gourd ; and the one with the shrimp and the fish together, is the work of Kinai.
Plate ABC represents a vase of earthenware, decorated with a flowering plum branch, and
made at Kyoto in the eighteenth century. The style of decoration is that of Kenzan, some clever
imitator seemingly having finished the work.
Ogata Kenzan (1663-1743) was the celebrated potter, one of whose productions we showed
in No. 6. We may here mention the fact that this artist was the younger brother of Korin.
Both of these men were distinguished by a universal genius. Korin added to his celebrity
as a painter, that of being a wonderful lacquerer ; having produced boxes the possession of
which causes such warm discussion at the present time ; while Kenzan was the potter that we
know, as well as one of the most refined painters, and sometimes also a lacquerer.
Plate ABI is the reproduction of a bottle in bronze of a dark' patina, dating from the
seventeenth century. It is Chinese in style ; the gracefully curved neck resembles the head and
throat of a swan, so completing by a motive from nature an outline entirely the idea of the artist.
The piece is unsigned.
137
Contents of Number ii.
PAGE
THE WAKIZASHI (Small Sword), by Philippe Burty ... 127
DESCRIPTION OF PLATES 136
SEPARATE PLATES.
AEE. Small Sword, with Sheath, Kodzuka, and Kogai.
ABC. Flower Vase in Bizen Pottery,
AD. Decorative Design. Flowers and Leaves.
ACF. Kakémono. Poppies. By Körin. (Double Page.)
ACA. Six Sword Guards.
FJ. A Young Girl. By Harunobu.
ADD. Decorative Design. Bamboo and Chrysanthemums.
ACG. Birds in the Bamboos. Moonlight.
ABI. Bronze Vase with Swan’s Neck.
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RITSUO AND HIS SCHOOL
Comparatively few years have passed since Japanese Art was first made
known to us in Europe by its best and most characteristic examples ; for
until 1830 nearly all that had been seen in Europe were the formal and
bastard products destined for European consumption, and manufactured for
European use, which were exported during the 18th century by the Dutch,
to meet the commercial rather than the artistic European demand. The
'39
ARTISTIC JAPAN.
*
Drawing from an Album, by Hoetsu (School of Ritsuo).
study of Japanese Art has therefore had to be recommenced
and reconstructed during the last
few years ; and although we possess
already the larger outlines of its
history, and the means of identify-
ing certain of its masterpieces (of
which many are in private hands
in Europe), a large field
remains open to investi-
gations. We have yet
much to do to define the
individuality, the tempera-
ment of its masters, and the history and characteristics of its schools.
The history of the Art of the West has been handled in every sense :
its psychology and its techniqiLe have been studied, and even its degeneration
and its counterfeits have been analysed. Not only have the lives and the
influence of each of the masters of Western Art been closely followed up, but
their artistic descendants, the influence which they have undergone, or which
they have exerted, the comparison of their works and the changes of their
style, have been the subject of deep study. To the names of Holbein or of
Palissy, of Grinling Gibbons or of Wedgewood, of Albert
Durer or of Benvenuto Cellini, are attached in our minds
the association of periods accurately classified, and of
styles definitely recognised. On the contrary, except
among a small number of “Japanist” experts, the name of
a Japanese artist is nothing more than the shadowy name
of an unknown being ; at any rate it does not excite the
idea of a period, of a style, or of a personal genius.
Japan, for us, was born yesterday; although its distance
from us has been relatively annihilated, its difficult and
complex language separates us from it, and it is not easy
to obtain the information which would make the name
of each of its masters a flag under which would be ranged
epochs, styles, and preferences.
To attempt such a work with any completeness or
extension is perhaps rash at the present time, for certain
documents are still wanting ; nevertheless we have been
I4O
Portrait Statuette of Tenjin, by Ritsuo
(Hart Collection).
able now for
some time to
distinguish
from the number many individualities
so lofty and distinct, that they carry with them
part of a century or a whole branch of art.
The artist of whose work I propose here briefly to sketch the
characteristic outlines, Ritsuo, is worthy to take a place in the
front rank. He showed himself under very divers aspects : he
touched almost every branch of art, and succeeded in all that he attempted.
We find him as painter, sculptor, lacist, potter; and the clay which he
modelled, the lacs which he polished, the ivory or the wood which he
carved, the panels which he decorated, are counted to-day among the chefs-
d'œuvre of art.
«
Ogawa Ritsuo, of Kuwano, province of Isé, held the rank of Samurai,
that is to say of the knightly warrior, but he early renounced the career of
arms to turn towards art. In Japan the class of nobles had but one
occupation under the Shoguns, that of war. It was a degradation to
occupy themselves in agriculture, and especially so in commerce :
these were considered occupations unworthy of a well-born man ;
but the noble, even were he prince or of kingly dignity, who
laid down his sabre to take up the brush or the graver, did
not derogate from his dignity. His name gathered from his
artistic achievements greater lustre and more durable honour.
The netsuké, skilfully sculptured, counted towards a reputa-
tion even more than a head courageously cut off in war.
Thus it may be understood that Ritsuo, samurai by
birth, remained none the less samurai after he had ac-
complished his chef s-d' œuvre. Nay, more, those who
were not highly born, but who were attached to the
court of a great daimio in virtue of their talents,
were frequently ennobled, and took high rank
amongst the two-sworded men. I possess a con-
siderable number of objects of art signed by names
accompanied with the titles of Hogen, of Kami
(lord); among them masks of Nô, signed Kami-
No-Wasa, a princely title, and not only in my own,
141
Statuette of a Niô in tacquere wood (Hart Collection).
but I am sure also in many other collections in this country, there exist
kakémonos, netsukés, sword guards, and masks of Nô, of which the authors
were ennobled for their artistic eminence.
Ritsuo, already celebrated as a soldier, and even as a tactician, made it
his glory to become an art workman, and it is as such we have to study
him.
It has already been said that if our middle ages were familiar with
artist workmen such as the Benvenuto Cellinis and the Maestro Georgios, a
wide separation subsequently opened between art and craft, between great
art and minor art. In Japan no difference was known between great art
and minor art ; art was never separated from craft. The people had such
a craving for, and such a sense of art in their private life, that they applied
it to the most ordinary objects of domesticity. Their sabres, the medicine
boxes and netsukés which hung at their girdle, the toilet utensils of the
lady, the writing and despatch boxes, the tea jars, the letter presses and
the manuscript boxes, contributed to the ornament of the home or the
costume. In the work of Ritsuo this constant intimate union of art and craft
shows brilliantly.
As a sculptor he is seen in many works, some of which are here illus-
trated from my collections. One is a statuette, a portrait figure, of the
Minister Tenjin, in full ceremonial dress, grave, sedate,
life-like, full of dignity and grace. Another, a pair of
Niôs (guardians of the temple), reductions of the cele-
brated Niô at Nara of the nth century. MiniLsculns
colossi, a little less than a foot high — they preserve all
the characters and much of the grandeur and strength
of the celebrated originals. Or again, this Shoki, the
warrior of Chinese antiquity, the legendary persecutor
142
Medicine Box incrusted in Mother o’ Pearl and Ivory,
by Hanzan (Pupil of Ritsuo).
ARTISTIC JAPAN.
of dai-
mios.
The an-
cient tra-
ditions of Japan
loved these fantastic
forms of animal such
as the chimaera on
which the Shoki is
mounted. To the Euro-
pean eye they present but
little attraction, and while
the amateur trained in the
traditions of the far East
becomes familiar with them,
and with the quality of mind
which begot them, the public
generally are still somewhat dis-
concerted in the presence of these
strange and fantastic types. The
Niô are exact reproductions of works
of an ancient date ; secular manifesta-
tions of strange vigour, born under
Chinese and Buddhist influences ; they are
treated according to the convention which
was then accepted in the representation of
the human form, but are
instinct with force.
Ritsuo, while following
these antique models, develops
his genius in the energy of form,
the strength of modelling, the
truth of expression, and the skilful arrangement
of draperies. He has known how to put a
personal mark upon his work, and has succeeded, in
a miniature statuette, in producing much of the striking
effect of the huge and grandiose originals. Such is
the opinion of eminent sculptors to whom I have
shown these works. Neither in the Shoki nor the
portrait statuette of Tenjin has he preserved the
natural colour of the wood. The artist has skil-
fully covered it with a chocolate lac, with
touches of delicate gilding of miniature finish
and elaborately graceful scrolls on the robes,
and with roseate colour on the face.
After the sculptor we see the lacist
appear, and thus we can follow him and
see him pass to another branch of art
under the impulse of the need of new
decorative effects. The lac work of
these figures would, however, give only
an incomplete idea of the skill of
Ritsuo, if other objects issuing from
his hand did not test, in the deli-
cate management and decoration
of the lac, his science of com-
position and his profound
knowledge of the craft. In
his love of subtle and varied
decoration, one material
applied alone,
or two
materials
Decoration of a Panel incrusted with Lac, by Ritsuo
(Bing Collection).
ARTISTIC JAPAN.
in juxtaposition do not suffice. Everything comes
under his hand and seems good, provided that
the substance employed concurs in perfecting the
effect sought— mother-of-pearl, tortoiseshell, pot-
tery, metals, and enamels contribute to enrich his
palette. He incrusts, he models various tinted
compositions, he damascenes, he solders and rivets
with marvellous character. I select from the
examples which I have at hand almost at random.
Here is a little panel in which we find expressed
a fable analogous to the legend of the fatal box
of Pandora, a universal myth which haunts all
literature. From a background of black lac the
demon emerges, modelled in a special composition
which recalls the gesso of Italy. The mask and the bâton are in green and
blue gesso , the shell is encrusted in white pottery, the armorial bearings are
in mother-of-pearl, and all these substances, far from being discordant, melt
into a learned harmony and produce a very sober effect. It is here that
Ritsuo shows himself a true ini-
tiator. No one before him had
attempted the combination of such
a variety of materials. By the side
of mother-of-pearl, of lac, and of
gold — of which the whole gamut
was probably already known in
Japan— he quickly perceived the
varied resources which the use of
clay and the introduction of kera-
mic effects permitted, and so he
becomes a keramist who models
and bakes in a little oven con-
structed in his workshop ; at first,
small pieces expressly for the pur-
pose of enriching his lacs by in-
crustations, and then, tempted
and drawn away by the pleasure
of the craft, we see him treating
*
Medicine Box in Lac by Ritsuo (Hart Collection).
Shoki by Ritsuo (Hart Collection).
Page 142»
ARTISTIC JAPAN.
clay alone and enamelling it.
He becomes a potter. On a
- panel of wood hanging before
me, as I write, the soft parts are
skilfully rubbed away so as to
show all the beauties of the
natural grain, and producing the
hard veins in relief, giving a
solid decorative effect by their
undulating lines. He models
on this, or in very low relief,
Lac Box, by Ritsuo (Hart Collection). and [boldly foreshortened, an
Apostle of Buddha in an atti-
tude of ecstatic prayer ; the figure a harmony of brown and chocolate gesso,
clothed with diapers . in pale green faience. In another panel on my walls
a fish and weeds in gesso, and shells in faience stand out in relief on a
background of red and low-toned gold.
The gold of Ritsuo, like the gold of Korin, would deserve a special study
of itself, so full is it of novel and rare effects, and so capable of running
through a whole gamut of sober but yet brilliant tones of red, yellow, and
green. A magnificent writing-box was shown in London by Mr. Hayashi ;
a ceremonial elephant in brilliant colour, with
incrustations, made the cover one of the
most beautiful pieces of decoration
which can be seen. Mr. Bing
possesses a cabinet charmingly
decorated with a kingfisher, of
which the design is reproduced
here. It is a panel of brown
wood with the veins in relief ;
the bird is polychromatic faience
in one piece ; all the gamut of
reds, greens, blues, and greys are
employed in it. The inro en-
graved in the text from my
collection, showing the portrait of
Daruma, is also in coloured gesso
Box in Lac, by Ritsuo (Hart Collection).
ARTISTIC JAPAN.
in low relief incrusted on natural wood. A manu-
script box reproduced in Mr. Huish’s work on the
Arts and Crafts of Japan is decorated with temple
tiles in green faience, one of them showing a demon’s
head in black, grey, and gold. A small box belong-
ing to Mr. Bing is in pottery. One might be
tempted to push with the foot this broken end of
tile, so well are the characteristic ornaments imitated,
and so plainly do the broken edges seem to show
(where their varnish is artfully worn away) the
rough grain of a block of baked clay. On the
lower surface of this little box Ritsuo has imitated
his own seal, which seems worn and broken,
although in reality it is perfectly complete.
It is here that perhaps the fissure in the armour of a great artist is
seen. He loves to play with his material. He pushes his virtuosity to the.
point of deceiving the eye of the amateur as to the substances employed.
He amuses himself with making (and with what astonishing ability!) a piece
of pottery which is in reality a piece of lac, or a quasi sculpture in wood or
in bronze, which is really made of potter’s clay. We may fairly ask our-
selves whether an artist of ability ought to descend to this trifling ; but we
may remember that amongst ourselves also certain artists of the 18th century
committed themselves to this form of illusion. Carlo Crivelli painted broken
marble so that the eye might well be deceived. Ritsuo, playfully handling
his brush, amused himself with this innocent pleasantry. On two grand
screens, ’with the background of gold, he has painted appliqués of ancient
images, the torn remains of antique pictures, and with such truth, that
amateurs and painters, assembled to examine it, could not believe their eyes,
and that even the touch hardly sufficed to convince them of the humorous
and brilliant illusions in which the master delighted. But, outside these
tricks of skill, Ritsuo knew how to be a painter of consummate science.
More than one kakémono in European collections show his mastery of
delicate drawing, of exquisitely graduated colour, and his intimate knowledge
of the various schools of Chinese and Japanese painting. Around such an
artist a school grew up, although none of his pupils reached the mastery of
Ritsuo. Among those who became followers of his style, must be men-
tioned especially Hanzan, Zeshin and Kenya for their lacs, and Hoitsu for
Box in Pottery (Bing Collection).
146
ARTISTIC JAPAN.
îiis paintings. Hanzan came next to the master as a lacist in certain effects
of great brilliancy ; in decoration of warm colour. A large manuscript box
by Hanzan, incrusted with fishes and shells, and crustations in proper colours
upon a background of rich avanturine gold, shows a mastery over the broad
•effects of form and skilful tintings of lac and of pearl, which not even
Ritsuo excelled, and which no one else has approached. But these are
qualities more easy to imitate than vigour of drawing, fecundity of invention,
passion and originality, or profound science in arrangement of the qualities
in which the painter, sculptor, and keramist, to whom I have devoted
these imperfect lines, show among the most brilliant of his fellows.
Hoitsu, like Ritsuo, was born of noble family (1760-1827). He was the
•son of Prince Sakai, but left the aristocratic world to devote himself to art.
The specimens of work which I possess seem to me to savour of the
inspiration of Korin as well as of Ritsuo. It has the qualities of brilliant
colour, and original, but fantastic invention and a purposeful disdain of
naturalistic effect. Zeshin has only just ceased to work. Like Ritsuo, he
wielded the brush and the graver, as well as being an accomplished lacist. He
has a wilder and less restrained fancy than the illustrious master who seemed
in no small measure to have inspired his work ; and he inherited, or
adopted, the fancy for imitating in lac every other kind of material. You
take up a plate which shows all the golden sombre browns and yellows of
an ancient bronze. You find it light as a feather. It is made of the finest
lac, perfectly reproducing all the lustre and subtle varieties of colour of a
bronze discoloured by age. His surimonos are especially celebrated, and
are distinguished by an inexhaustible fancy, but are often disfigured by care-
less drawing and defective sense of beauty.
Kenya is another Hanzan, but feebler in colour, and far less skilled in
the intimate marriage of material, in firmness of outline, and in richness of
pictorial effect.
147
DESCRIPTION OF PLATES.
Hokusai gives us a subject for Plate ABA. We again find him taking a careful study
from Nature, in this one of the Thirty-six Views of Fujiyama , from which book we have
already given a specimen in No. 4 of Artistic Japan, and we would refer the reader for fuller
details to the last mentioned number. The Thirty-six Views constitute a series of landscapes
printed in colours, and of a size larger by one quarter than our reproductions. Landscape is here
the single object in the mind of the artist, in contradistinction to the Hundred Views (whence we
have also already taken pages) which combine in their composition also scenes of Japanese Life,
and where Fujiyama is hardly more than a shape in the decorative idea.
Plate ABA shows a deserted portion of the province of Soshin, or Sugami, called Umazava,
in the neighbourhood of Yedo. Fuji raises his snowy crest above the pine forests which clothe
his sides, and craves search at their leisure in the pools among the marshes — the lowest slopes of
the mountain are cut into broad tracts by a mist whose surprising thickness will not surprise those
who have been able to put themselves absolutely in the presence of one of the remarkable fogs
which at times envelop the narrow islands of Japan. The cover of this number also reproduces
one of the Thirty-six Views , this full of an even more strikingly impressionist feeling, in which
the immense mountain Fuji against a blue sky is all red from the rays of the setting sun.
Side by side of Hokusai the landscapist, we have Hokusai the “ popularist,” whom we have
seen before.
Once more we give some pages from the Man-gwa reproduced in Plate AEH.
On the left hand we have fat people, a comical contrast to the thin ones ; of which one can
see a series of specimens in No. 9.
In the first scene a wrestling master is pummelled by his pupil, the former seeming to be
half asleep as he calmly smokes his pipe. The judge patiently awaits the resuming of the real
contest. In the second scene two men, about to enjoy themselves at the fair, sing to their own
accompaniment on the samisen, much to the amusement of the servant girl who brings thém their
tea. The three personages in the last scene are bathing ; a woman is already in the wooden tub,
another bather is washing his head, while the third, who is already leaving, is still holding towels in
his hand, and seems to inhale the fresh air with no little delight.
On the other page an oil merchant waits, in a melancholy mood, for customers ; glass-blowers
apply themselves to their business ; and two makers of a dainty similar to the French berlingot,
stretch out the sweetmeat, while a third cuts it into little sticks.
Below the person who beats so energetically with his hammer on a block, was occupied in
making a paste of rice, which he would have cooked in the little oven to be seen to his left ; a
joker has come, and, unnoticed, has removed the compound, so that the poor man strikes a
violent blow upon the empty block, to the evident and exquisite delight of the two assistants.
Plate AAA, taken from the same album, whence we have already borrowed Plate AJE
in No. 10, represents a sparrow, or perhaps a flycatcher, perching on a brier ( Rosa rugosa).
Painted wood objects such as this one (Plate IG) are among the first manifestations of artistic
taste to be found not only in Japan, but also in our western world. Before the invention of
improvements which allow the working of stone or metal, wood was the material which best
lent itself to the imperfect instruments, and varied tintings satisfied the primitive taste. Colour
struck the eye more vividly than even a bronze or marble statue. Single tinted specimens
of plastic art necessitate a certain amount of education, which only comes after years of
civilisation.
It is said that, as in the western world, there is found in Japan, painted wood at the very
commencement of all artistic production. The temples of Shiba and Nikko possess some dating
to the seventh century.
This personage is the hero of some forgotten legend. On an ordinary tree trunk which
148
ARTISTIC JAPAN.
he both impels onward and guides with a bamboo, he faces waves which are foaming all around
him. The conventional clouds are arranged for a decorative effect, and may have formed the
crowning of some panel which decorated the upper part of a temple wall — the specimen is
reproduced a quarter of its size.
The art of wood carving presents itself in a very different form in Plate AEG, where we find
eight n tsukés, the tiny objects on which the Japanese so admirably work with all the refinement
of their character, their gracefulness, and their care. The netsuké was used as a sort of button
on the silken cord which suspended through the girdle the medicine box, the tobacco pouch,
or the pipe-case. It was for the Japanese, who were unacquainted with ornaments, precious
metals and gems, one of the rare objects of personal decoration which they could be proud
of. A fine netsuké in the girdle was the object of general admiration, collectors possessed
series of them, which were worn in turn, in the way that Samurais had for the same sword
a whole collection of guards, which were used one after the other. There are existing netsukés
made of various materials, china, metal, lacquer, but most are in wood or ivory ; those in
wood are generally the most perfect.
The largest represents a Niô. Mr. Hart, in his article appearing in the present number
having explained what a Niô was, there is no reason for a repetition. The object is reproduced
in company with the seven others, at three-quarters of its real size. The wood has in time
become of a beautiful brown tint, which seems to lend itself better to what makes it more than
an ordinary image, the details of bones, muscles, as well as the arrangement of the draperies.
The other personage seems to be, judging from appearance, an exceedingly old piece of
work, it is scratched, and the brown tint has only remained in the crevices ; it is the image
of the ancient inhabitants of Japan, of a “ savage,” according to the definition of the Japanese.
The artist must have expressly given to his work this look of antiquity, for the invention
of netsukés does not date back more than two hundred years. He had certainly not set his eyes
on the living beings whom he has represented, and this netsuké is probably a copy of an ancient
statue, like those preserved still in the temple at Nara, where are kept at the present time the
wondrous gems of secular art due to the primitive inspiration of the Buddhist religion.
The squatting personage who stretches as he yawns represents Dharma, one of the chief
saints of Buddhism. The legend states that Dharma, in a spirit of humiliation, condemned
himself to remain for ever sitting ; his legs became eventually dried up. He also allowed himself
no sleep — hence the energy, carried almost to caricature, which the artist has put in his yawning'.
Also, one day, as Dharma was napping in spite of himself, as punishment for his laxity he cut
off his eyelids and cast them away. Bhudda made to grow from them the tea plant which
destroys sleep. We shall find on more than one occasion in Japanese art the legend of Dharma
as a theme for varied interpretations. The four little masks represent specimens of one of the
subjects to which the makers of netsukés take with the utmost kindness.
The exaggerated expression seized by the observing eye of the Japanese, and given with all
the spirit of mockery which is at the very foundation of the race, is most strikingly noticeable
when one sees a whole collection of different masks together. The general effect of them is so
highly comical, even when some of them express an aggravated grief, that one cannot help smiling
at the silent comedy, and there is an irresistible laugh in store for those who have the chance of
seeing a whole collection of such objects.
Two very different kinds of them have been made, some like those at the foot of the plate,
being their productions of theatrical masks, legendary beings (that to the right), or traditional
personages (that to the left, which is some noble of the theatre), while in others, the artist has
determined to inspire an intense life-likeness into the face he carved.
Plate AFJ represents a temple candlestick in china, designed from the acrobatic performances
of three monkeys ; the last of which has a lotus leaf on his head to hold the spike on which the
wax light was held.
149
Contents of Number 12
RITSUO AND HIS SCHOOL. By Ernest Hart .... 139
DESCRIPTION OF PLATES 148
SEPARATE PLATES.
ABA. Landscape, from the Thirty-six Views of Fujiyama.
AEH. Two Pages of the “Man-gwa.” By Hokusai.
AAA. A Bird, and Flowers. School of Shijo.
ADI. Industrial Design. Bamboo.
AAI. Night Fête. By Utamaro. (Double Plate.)
BF. Industrial Design. Flowers.
AEG. Eight Netsukés.
AFJ. Temple Candlestick, in Porcelain.
IG. Coloured Wood-Carving.
ABA
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